It just occurred to me watching the game tonight why Yao and T-Mac compliment each other so well. Beyond the obvious inside outside, PNR, 2-man game stuff, we have 1 superstar in Yao that is Mr. Consistency. He hardly ever shoots a poor % from the floor and you can almost always count on him for 25 & 10. He may not torch you for 50, but he is just so consistent you can pencil in the contribution every night. The other superstar, is Mr. Streaky. He has been known to go 0-6 from the three (see tonight) and take some ill-advised shots. He will also light you up for 50 points and score 10 points in a couple of minutes. He also joys in sticking the game winner and is capable of the circus make. The perfect 1-2 punch in so many ways.
Post of the year. Oh, I'm rating it high. It'll be like the comments on Ben Wallace from 2003-2006 after I'm done with it.
Very astute on the topic creator's part, because the general point is quite true for the most part. Yao, barring the occassional off night, can be counted on for 20-25 and 9-10 rebounds-with a large mix of 25+/10+ nights. Tracy can sometimes (even often times) take awhile to get going, but boy when he does... he is damn near unstoppable. Though T-Mac has off nights too (which are usually never worse than 14/4/5 or so) and he sometimes takes 15 shots (12 of which brick hard) to get it going, I accept both of those things happily for the way he takes over a game or hits the perfect shot/s just when we need them or the way he gets the roleplayers scoring with his playmaking between scoring. We're lucky we have Yao and Tracy, they are indeed perfect compliments and, God willing, will continue to be for the better part of a decade. When the guys on the TNT pre/post-game show were calling T-Mac and Yao the best half court players in the league... I just had to smile, cause our stars are finally getting their due.
Now i know yao is mostly consistent, but why would you make this post when Yao goes for 9/24 he wasent exactly lighting it up you know?
Maybe it's just me, but I thought most of Mac's misses were very-near misses? Managing to just pop or roll out after having a peek? That's beside the point though. I think T deserves more credit. He is not hit-and-miss, and not dumb. I just don't understand people hollering at him to drive the ball every friggin possession after a few missed jumpers. He just isn't today's version of a young MJ. He settled for jumpshots when the Rox were still within a comfortable margin, which was most of the game. When things got a little more uncomfortable, he made spectacular drives and scored over everybody. He is thinking long-term, which means a potential 28 draining games - a full one-third of the regular season. I could see TMac always thinking, always focused, knowing exactly what the game situation was, and expending just enough energy to get the win. Seems to me this team is focused under JVG, and is in it for the long haul. Mac's missed J's? He's just finding his range, dialing in his shot, as far as I'm concerned.
Here, here! Tracy deserves a lot of credit, and I think few fans around here (though not all) aren't taking anything away from what he's done in the regular season and so far in the playoffs-even when they demand he elevate his game even more, or drive more, etc. etc. Tracy has matured into a player that doesn't have to always hit the lane to score, he has developed one of the best shooting touches in the league, even if it can sometimes be inconsistant. Plus, as we saw tonight, he has no qualm about driving to the lane when he needs to, but as smart as he is he's not going to constantly sacrafice his body by driving into the lane unless he has to. Like you mentioned, after a long season comes a long road to the title... if the Rockets are gonna win the title they are likely gonna have to play through 20-25+ games, Tracy is gonna need to maintain his health for that period if the Rockets are gonna bring the title back to H-Town. However, if the Rockets were down, time running out, and driving aggressively was the way to get his team back in the game there is no doubt in my mind T-Mac would do that in a heartbeat. Tracy does what he has to to help the team most, we've seen that with his leadership, his clutch shooting, his playmaking, and his scoring. As a veteran, he knows what it takes and when to get a victory. Yes, sometimes he can get cold and miss a high percentage of shots... but as long as he doesn't let that get to him he'll, 9/10, get hot when the team needs him to get hot. I think Yao is the more consistant and dependable of the two players, but by no means would I consider Tracy inconsistant or "Mr. Streaky". Yao is not above going 9/24 nor is he incapable of dropping 40 points, but while Tracy seems to come on more in the clutch or when his team needs a scorer, Yao seems to be more consistant and methodical. Though I agree with the topic creator to a high degree, Mr. Streaky and Mr. Consistency is a bit much, but one thing I think we can all agree on is that we're lucky to have the best 1-2 punch in the league.
based on 2 playoffs games so far: mr consitency = chuck hayes, tmacs points + assists, rafer's overall game besides his shot(actually his shot is to a point where its almost consistently bad), vspan on bench mr semi-consistent = yao, gets his points mostly thru the free throws. if he made his normally high % of shots tho..... mr streaky = rafers shot, tmacs shot, luthers shot, battiers shot, juwans shot, yea.....
what separeates Yao now from Yao 2 years ago is when he has a poor shooting night like tonight, he still manages to give you 25 pts thanks to more shot attempts and more calls thus more FTs. 2 years ago, when he had a poor shooting night like his, his teammates would have gone away from him and he would ended up with like 15 pts.
The next two games would a great time for Yao and TMac to find their shot. I am ready to take on the Warriers.
this just shows how good yao is when 9/24 becomes so bad. funny how ppl dont seem to include fts when they mention fgs yes they are a great compliment. when tmac is in a slump, you can just count on yao to pick up the slack until tmac picks it up again. so most of the time, the team doesn't get hurt too much when tmac shoots bad.
Spot on. That's where Yao has matured the most imo. It's not so much his game, but others' respect for his game to know that even when he's not feeling it, a 7'6" guy is still your most dependable mismatch every single trip down the court, so get him the ball.
Yao shot about 30% this time and missed a lot shots in the 4th quarter. Obviously Okur figured out some ways to guard him. Hope he can come abck and crush both Okur and Boozer next time. Go Rockets!
