McGrady is going to have to shoot his way out of this slump. I know he may be injured more seriously than anyone is letting on, but he's on the floor, and the team is built around him. What little hope we have at this point relies almost entirely on his ability to score. It could be ugly, and it may not work, but we can't legitimately compete with these guys any other way. God knows no one wants to watch him go 10-40, but he's got to try. I mean seriously, they're guarding him half the time with Kyle freakin' Corver; you'd think the guy was the incarnation of Kobe-Kryptonite with the way T-Mac nonchalantly decides not to destroy him off the dribble. He needs to stop calling for the pick, which inevitably brings the psycho double team, and take it straight at the scrubs they send to guard him. Our guys need to get out from under the basket and give Mac some room to drive. It was absolutely absurd that the Jazz had the luxury of assigning Kirlenko to Scola in the forth quarter so the guy could absolutely feast as a help side defender. What the hell, isn't this the same guy who was crying over his yeast infection after games last postseason?! Good God, Adelman, will you please at least attempt to motivate your franchise two-guard into playing like a man. On a positive note, just kidding, tonight was a complete abomination of an offensive game plan. This has all the look of 4-0 avalanche. Let's save the reminiscing over the streak and an over-achieving regular season, and get to freakin' work in the meantime. I don't mind losing to a better team, but I can't stomach rolling over. This was a completely depressing game 1, even though I expected it.
NO! he should not shot out of this slump, he needs to drive to the hoop to get him out of the slump, not only that will get him fired up but the team and the crowd. Plus how do you shoot out of a slump with 2 or 3 jazz on you and your a 40%GF player
Agreed. I strongly suspect that this "slump" has a lot to do with age and wear and tear. T-Mac's not going to get any younger.
you don't get it, he can't carry a team anymore.....he's a MAX money making playmaker, he needs to be the second fiddle to be truly an asset to this team. basically without Yao we arn't going to go anywhere......
...and one more thing I want to vent about; what the hell are Scola, Mutumbo, Landry, etc. doing clogging the lane when T-Mac drives anyway?! Are they hoping for an offensive rebound? That would be great, but T-Mac scoring would be even better. On top of that, how many times were our bigs able to convert one of those rebounds into a putback? Just about zero times, because the Jazz are big, and the Jazz are physical, and the Jazz are great a blocking shots. Oh, and we're unbelievable undersized. Great strategy guys... Please, for the love of God, go back to the drawing board on your offensive approach. Try some spacing for a change, we've got some guys who can score the ball when they're not in 1 on 3 scenarios.
everyone from scola to tmac and everyone else was so active on the low block to get back in the game and everything changed when scola got the 4th foul and tmac stopped driving. I'm pretty sure when freakin korver is guarding him, he is capable of blowing past him toward the rim with boozer millsap okur all out of there
He'll have surgery this off season. That said... it may be too late for him to shoot his way out of a slump for risk of more damage to his shoulder. It really is sad for him. But these are the breaks.
I'm with you, I'm saying drive, shoot, the whole damn kitten kaboodle. Any if he stops calling for the pick and decides to use some of his world class basketball ability he'd probably have a great chance at breaking Corver/Kirlenko/Harpring off the dribble.
actually scola deke landry and hayes did respond pretty well crashing the boards after being owned by jazz in the first half too bad layups aren't falling in and 10missed FTs
Know you don't get it; he is a max money player that owes it to his owner, franchise, fans, and city to at the very least TRY. I'm not saying they're going to beat the Jazz, I'm saying that it's time for Mac to compete. He's not the same player, but he's the best we've got right now.
The layups weren't falling because all 12 active members of the Utah Jazz were under the basket every time one of our guys got an offensive rebound. It's great that they can rebound, but unfortunately rebounds count for exactly zero points.
When Utah gets an offensive board...they score...when we get a offensive board/steal we turn it back over
REBOUNDS that is all that can save us. we dont have time for mcgrady to shoot out of his slump- especially because he is too good for shootarounds.
I think what rday means is for McGrady to look for his offense selfishly like Kobe 2 years ago (shoot, drive, whatever it takes to get points for himself). McGrady seems to defer too much now to his teammates. How many times have you seen him seemingly pull up for a jumper but then on his way down, pass it to a cutting Scola/Hayes/BJax (who aren't exactly the best finishers OR FT shooters). I suspect this is partly to deflect the criticism away from himself - if Scola, Landry, BJax don't finish, he could always say he made unselfish, correct play. However, even if McGrady is looking for his offense, he really doesn't have "IT" anymore. By "IT" I mean his freak athleticism (first step, explosion, hops), which more than made up for his lack of a fundamentally sound shooting form back in Orlando (laser beam no-arc shot to the back of the rim, off balance scissor kick jumper). Take away his hops and speed and you are left with an inefficient jump shooter that doesn't have the speed or strength to drive consistently to the hoop and finish. And I haven't even gotten to talking about his lack of killer instinct. T-Mac is damned if he does look for his shot, damned if he doesn't. He prefers to be damned if he doesn't.
but we did make a run and actually lead or tie at the beginning of 3rd quarter from down 13. I think that is due to over reb the jazz and out hustling them. To bad they stop doing it after scola got 4 fouls.
This team aint going anywhere if they don't start playing like they did during the 22 games winning streaks.
You are 100% dead on. He doesn't want the series to be "on me." He's made that abundantly clear. Trust me, I am not saying that his athleticisim is what is was 2,3,4+ years ago. I'm saying that he can continue to make the "right play" (unselfish) and we stand a .01% chance of winning the series, or he can become more aggressive attaching offensively and we'll stand a substantially better chance of competing in this series if he catches fire (which I happen to believe, he is still probably capable of doing).
i am all for pushing the tempo, and even jacking up a few ill advised shots at times, but not just from t-mac, from everyone. this half court crap isnt going to work because we cant get any easy baskets against it. there is no doubt we will be swept playing this way, so lets just open it up and see what happens. we need rafer back starting though...
