I didn't see this posted and I thought there were a couple of interesting quotes. http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660216944,00.html Jazz know McGrady's tough to keep down By Tim Buckley Deseret Morning News Sitting on a sideline seat following a morning shootaround in advance of the first-round NBA playoff series Game 5 between Utah and Houston, Derek Fisher was a man with mixed emotions. Scott G. Winterton, Deseret Morning NewsHouston's Tracy McGrady drives to the hoop around Utah's Andrei Kirilenko during Game 5 on Monday in Houston. The Jazz's starting shooting guard sounded like a kid who paid for one candy bar but got home and found two in the bag. He'd love to devour both, but figured before he could the other shoe would drop. Tracy McGrady, after all, indeed was shooting just 36.8 percent — more than six percent below his season average — through the series' first four games. Utah had Houston's star frustrated, perhaps even questioning his ability to lead his club into the second round of the playoffs — something he's failed to do in five prior tries. Yet Fisher seemed to sense, maybe even know, that the seven-time All-Star wasn't going to let the Jazz off the hook quite so easily. "I think as a team we've done the best job we can do in terms of making him work and expend energy to score points," Fisher was saying. "But I think Tracy's done a good job of really trusting his teammates — and some of those guys haven't really gotten going. "So I wouldn't say that I, or we, necessarily forced him to play bad. I just think he's been trying to find a balance between carrying the load and trying to score more, but also getting teammates involved in moving the basketball around when we are applying a double-team to him. And it's been difficult for him to find his rhythm." Sure enough, McGrady found his groove in Monday night's Game 5. It happened after yet another slow start, and — this time — a hip pointer injury that prompted him to briefly visit the Rockets locker room following the first quarter. But by the time all was done, McGrady would have a team-high 26 points on 11-of-25 field shooting, a personal career playoff-high 16 assists and a 96-92 win that put Houston up 3-2 on Utah in the best-of-seven series that resumes Thursday night. "He made some great plays to help them win the game," Jazz forward Matt Harpring said. The most memorable came midway through the fourth quarter, when McGrady faked shooting guard Gordan Giricek to the floor, then dribbled around help-defender Andrei Kirilenko for a layup that put Houston up 83-80. "Tracy was amazing," Kirilenko said afterward. "Tracy stepped up and played great," Jazz point guard Deron Williams added, "and made plays down the stretch." Just as the Jazz suspected he would, eventually. Early on in the series, wondering when McGrady would explode was like waiting for water to boil. The Jazz — who have guarded McGrady like he was the president, running one agent after another in front of him, from Fisher to Williams to Giricek to Kirilenko and even Matt Harpring a time or two — may even have been guilty of thinking they had the versatile Rockets swingman figured out. "I tried to give him as less space as possible and force him to take tough shots ... Every guy who shoots 30 balls is tough to stop. I just try to keep the percentage down," Giricek said after McGrady shot just 9-of-29 from the field in Game 2. McGrady actually scored 31 despite the off shooting in that game, yet the Jazz seemed to have an answer for that, too. "I've always believed that out of the 400-plus guys in this league, almost 400 of them — if they had an opportunity to shoot the ball 28, 29, 30 times a game, they could score 30 points also," Fisher said midway through the series. "And that's not to take anything away from Tracy's ability, or guys that get many attempts. But you can't stop a guy from scoring when he touches the ball 60, 70 times a game. You just have to make him work as hard as you can." As Game 5 approached, however, it became apparent McGrady was ready to rise and perhaps even spill over. It happened coming out of halftime Monday, his hip apparently OK, his trigger finger feeling good and his mind intent on both scoring and distributing. McGrady scored 11 of his 26 on 5-of-7 field shooting in the third quarter. But in dishing six more assists than he ever had previously in a playoff game, he allowed non-traditional offensive contributors like Shane Battier, who finished with 15 points and hit 5-of-7 from 3-point range, and Juwan Howard, whose 12 points came on 6-of-6 from the field, and even Luther Head, who made a couple of key fourth-quarter treys, to play a part. "I was really trying to be aggressive," McGrady said. "I was trying to give my teammates open shots, and also attack the basket. I was really trying to get to the basket and kick the ball out. I just wanted to take advantage of the matchups I had out there." And did he ever. "That was an All-Star performance, a superstar type of game," Rockets point Rafer Alston said. "Mac was taking the right shots. He was going at the basket," Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy added. "He created so many shots for other guys through his penetration, and he played a tremendous game." One that hours earlier Fisher practically predicted. "Players of his caliber — I don't know how much the defense always has to do with it," the Jazz veteran said. "I think sometimes they just make shots, sometimes they just miss shots. It just depends on what day of the week it is." And sometimes it doesn't matter whether it's Thursday or Monday. "That's why they are who they are. That's what really separates them from the pack of most other NBA guys," Fisher said. "They have that mental ability and that strength to be able to continue to be aggressive, continue to shoot the basketball — because they know that eventually it's gonna turn around. "Nine-for-23 could easily be 15-for-23. That's what makes them so good. They consistently get to attack you. They consistently get plays called for them. They consistently have the ball in their hands." And they consistently toy with emotions, tempting one to savor the sweets, making it known it's probably best not to bite that second bar.
T-Mac is at his best when he attacks the basket but the others guy better to be ready to knock down the shot because it will be wide open. Beside when T-Mac goes to the hole the defense will break down allow more oportunity for others.
Even though it's probably true that in the NBA, a lot of people, if given 30 shots, could score 30 points, not many of them could do it the WAY T-Mac does it. He constantly gets double teamed, with and without the ball. When he attacks the basket like he did in Game 5, he's incredibly hard to stop, and the Rockets are incredibly hard to beat. Here's hoping that he brings the same level of determination and desire in Game 6.
true. i mean, jamison is putting up kobe-like stats in the playoffs b/c he takes the same amount of shots as kobe can. but jamison does not face the defensive attention kobe does.
Did I miss something in the stat sheet, I saw the rest of the Rockets with 9 assists. http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270430010
