Man did that ever show TMac's grit and resolve! Harpring was the only guy on the Jazz who could get anything going in the end, and if they had any hope of making a miracle comeback, it was going to be on his shoulders. TMac knew this and decided to take matters into his own hands; I believe he even suckered Harpring into trying to post him up. And just swatted that shot like one of Deuce Bigelow's 'He-b****-man-slaps'. Truly a great sequence of one player just owning another one defensively. So, since the angle I had watching ESPN (cmon, I DVR'd the FSSW feed, but I am not gonna miss HD when it's there! ), was not all that great, I was wondering if anyone had seen a really good angle of it from a different source, and maybe someone could post it here as a clip - I would love to turn that into a animated icon or something... Thanks guys! GO ROX!!!
Funny because Bill Walton said it was Chuck Hayes and then the other announcer ignored his statement and went on to say Tmac with the nice block as they were heading back downcourt.
Tmac had 2 blocks, both on Harpring, both in the 4th quarter. THe first one was with 5:13 left in the game. He blocked the jumpshot, got the ball out of the air, dribbled up the court and assisted Chuck on a layup. The second one was with 3 minutes, the one you are referring to. You think Tmac wanted to let Harpring know what's up? What surprises me is that Harpring is always able to post up Shane and is very successful against Shane every time we played them this season. This happened in the regular season. Once JVG would put Tmac on Haprpring, he was able to slow him down. Harpring is able to back Shane down, but Tracy holds his ground. I don't think Tracy is that much stronger than Shane. It has to be his athleticism and length that troubles Harpring
it's the length. tmac is not that strong in the post. but he just puts his arms up and since harpring doesn't have the athleticism to jump high to get a good shot like kobe or vince, it's very easy for tmac to disrupt and even block his shot. this game shows harpring is our guy we need to focus on. hopefuly shane will do a better job so tmac can be on deron some more.
As some have mentioned, it is about Tmac's length and his leaping ability. Shane is a stronger defender in the post than Tmac but his strength is neutralized by Harpring's freak strength. McGrady simply let Harpring get to his spot and go up with the shot knowing full well he could get as soon as Harpring let it go. Shane doesn't have that luxury. I'm not even sure why Matt Harpring even tried to post McGrady. He may as well have been trying to post Yao. I do agree that Tracy suckered Harpring into posting him.
I think we have the capability of guarding Harpring well with T-Mac and Shane. I'm still iffy about Okur the next game, if he can get his shot on a little more. That is the oddest position to guard. Yao seems to be frustrating Boozer a lot. He forces fadeaways and makes Boozer drive weirdly.
yeah i'd have to say that shane is strong, but harpring is huge, like, roids huge--i'd be curious to see, but i bet he's one of the strongest in the L at his position. T mac isn't weak though, and also had some wildly long arms and really well timed jumps for those blocks.
