[TheSaltLakeTribune] NBA playoffs: Monson says McGrady dictates heights for Rockets

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NBA playoffs: Monson says McGrady dictates heights for Rockets
By Gordon Monson
Tribune Columnist
Article Last Updated: 04/18/2008 01:57:40 AM MDT

Deron Williams succinctly reduced the Jazz's challenge in the first round of the playoffs against the Houston Rockets with the uttering of two words: Tracy and McGrady.
"We have to focus on shutting down T-Mac," he said. "Everything goes through him."
Against one of the NBA's most unique talents, a seven-time All-Star and two-time NBA scoring champ, the shutting down doesn't come easy, although some consider him harmless, or even cursed.
Not me.
Not the Jazz, at least not all out in the open.
They should know. They've tried the shutting-down thing so often before - with mixed results.
The Jazz beat the Rockets twice this season, but Houston is one of only four teams that walked off the floor at EnergySolutions Arena with a victory, thanks to . . . You-Know-Who. In that game, McGrady dropped 47 points on their beans, coming from all angles, all distances, all over creation, and they came all night long. Bad news is, the guard/forward could have jacked that total much higher had he felt like it.
"He buried us," Jerry Sloan said after that game.
"He makes that team run," said Ronnie Brewer.
McGrady, who averaged 22 points, five boards, and six assists this season, took great pleasure in that win on the Jazz's home floor - taunting the crowd and relishing the moment -because of what had happened to him here during the playoffs a year ago, when the Jazz evened the series twice at ESA, then won it in Game 7 in Houston.
It is true that in that playoff set, the man who pilots the Rockets could have done more. He could have taken wiser shots, and evened out his efficiency. He was great in some moments, reckless in others. Either way, thereafter, he caught and hauled the blame.
As uncommon as McGrady's skills are - at 6-foot-8, he can shoot over smaller guards, move around bigger defenders, and create shots that register ridiculously high on anybody's degree-of-difficulty scale - and for all the problems he conjures for any opponent, the Jazz not only have last year's first-round result in the bank, they have a lasting precedent on their side.
All y'all know what's coming next. Say it with me now:
T-Mac doesn't win playoff series.
Never has and, some forever shout, never will.
He's oh-for-deep-sixed.
It's one of those oft-repeated, but compelling storylines that initially is hard to explain, such a great player reaping such unfruitful gains when it matters most, but the longer that streak continues, the more it cuts him to the quick.
He knows the drill. He's heard the supporters, the apologists. He's heard the critics, the haters.
McGrady is seen as an unfortunate victim and he is viewed as the dastardly cause.
Some attribute his misfortune to playing too long in Orlando, without as much help as he needed. Some say issues with his back still haunt him, that he shoots more from the perimeter now to spare his back the pounding attendant with driving to the hoop. Others say there's too much softness or selfishness in him, claiming McGrady is too worried about getting his own shot, getting his own numbers, and that he doesn't make his team better. He's not a winner, they say.
But, looking down the barrel of a playoff do-over, the Jazz only pass along the sweetest of praises.
"He's a tough, tough matchup," Carlos Boozer said. "He's got a world of talent. He's one of those guys in the league who can put a team on his back and carry them through a series. I hope it doesn't happen this time. We'll try to do the best job we can to keep that streak going for him. But he's really good."
Added Sloan: "It can't all fall on his shoulders. He's not he only guy on his team. He's a wonderful player. But he still has to have help. They've gotten a lot of help for him this year."
The Rockets have lost help, too, with Yao Ming long gone to injury.
The rest of the crew, players such as Luis Scola, Shane Battier, Carl Landry, Bobby Jackson, Rafer Alston, among others, have chipped in.
"We have to try not to let anyone else hurt us, keep them to their averages, and just play solid defense, and make them guard us on offense," Williams said.
Still, Houston is McGrady's town, the Toyota Center is his gym, the Rockets' fate rests in his palms. That's good news, for some, but before anyone around here looks ahead to the Lakers, hold on and sit tight. There's no curse with this guy. Nothing set in stone.
Wait and see: McGrady, who helped the Rockets surpass the Jazz's regular-season win total and gain home-court advantage for this series, will do his best to bump himself out of his sorry pattern. And carry his team along with.
No one will be more motivated than he is. And that's a threat the Jazz have to take seriously. ---
gmonson@sltrib.com