Who is 21? Is that Jim Jackson? Guess this is an older picture huh? Darn cuz I was gonna make that my wallpaper for my PDA
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/3457374 Rockets unleash surprise McGrady returns with 35-point burst to scorch Nets EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The next time they produce one of those Tracy McGrady shoe commercials, the ones in which they exaggerate the tall tales of his exploits beyond all reason, they can tell the truth. McGrady wrote a new script Saturday. He came back two weeks ahead of schedule from a back injury, couldn't shoot straight for a half — and then put on a stunning offensive display that ended the Rockets' three-game losing streak with a 99-91 win over the New Jersey Nets before 20,098 at Continental Airlines Arena. McGrady, after making just 1 of 9 shots in the first half, scored 30 points in the second half — 20 in the fourth quarter — in his first game since he was helped off the Toyota Center practice court on Nov. 4. McGrady finished with 35 points, 10 rebounds, three blocked shots and four assists, to say nothing of the Rockets' first win since he left. "I'm a scorer," McGrady said. "Once you get that feeling, I don't care what kind of defense they put on you, they're just at your mercy." He only hinted at was to come when he made 5 of 8 shots in the third quarter, missing his only 3-pointer. In the fourth quarter, after the Nets had reduced a 17-point Rockets lead to three, McGrady dominated as few players can. "I was in amazement," Rockets rookie Luther Head said. "That was my first time seeing it up close and personal like that. I knew he was a great player, but man, he put on a show tonight." With the Nets as close as they had been since the first quarter, McGrady answered with a 3-pointer and nailed all four treys he launched in the fourth quarter. He made 7 of 9 shots in the quarter, and when the Nets desperately sent an early double team to force him to give up the ball, he whipped the ball David Wesley and Jon Barry who whipped passes to one another for consecutive 3s of their own. Wesley amazed "That's something great players have that the rest of us don't," said Wesley, who had a season-high 15 points off the bench. "To get it from him after he's been out is an even bigger left. "He was hitting shots when he was guarded, over people, down the stretch when we needed big shots." Nets forward Richard Jefferson, the defender primarily assigned to McGrady, described him as "up there with Vince, A.I. and Kobe." But with Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson at the NBA's top two scorers and McGrady has twice led the league in scoring, Vince Carter had spent a tempestuous night flinging fadeaways and bickering with officials. Carter, McGrady's distant cousin and former Toronto teammate, made just 6 of 10 shots for his 16 points. Despite a high-scoring second half, the Nets made just 37 percent of their shots, ensuring they could not keep pace when McGrady got hot. Still, the Rockets needed him to take over because they had let another double-digit lead slip away in the third quarter. Fouls bench Yao The Rockets scored the first six points of the second half to take their largest lead, 17 points. They even kept that margin for a few minutes. But Yao Ming, who scored 18 points but played just 22 minutes, picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench. McGrady went to the bench in search of oxygen. And as is so often the case when McGrady or Yao sit down, the offense went with them. With the lead shrinking fast and the memory of three consecutive games lost down the stretch clear, McGrady returned to take it over. "My back, it felt pretty good the whole game," McGrady said. "I didn't have any problems physically. I just needed little oxygen tanks. I was about to die out there. "Coming to the game, I knew offensively in the first half, I was going to struggle. That's why I was concentrating more on getting everybody else involved, playing defense, rebounding, getting out and just making plays. I knew I was going to come out in the second half and get my shot up. It felt good and I just took over the game." With McGrady back to trigger or finish the Rockets offense with three guards circling the 3-point arc around him, it looked better down the stretch than in any of the season's previous four games, until there was nothing the Nets could do to stop him. "Their plan was just as good when a guy's 1 for 9," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "But sometimes, that's how good McGrady is. "That's why you try to get great players. You're always trying to get them. It's hard to find them." The Rockets found theirs right where they left him, doing what he does best and without the imagination of television fiction.
I was able to crop it to get T-Mac, Yao, Deke and JVG with the word Rockets in the background so you should be able to do the same.
It would be easy to white out the 1 off of the 21 to get Luther's number(2). He even looks somewhat like that pic of JJ.
i like wesley during the postgame interview. he looked like a wide-eyed fan, speechless over t-mac's performance. there's no question this team would be 5-0 right now had he been healthy the entire time. his morale boost alone seems to be good for an extra ten points every game.
true, it is early, and these stats won't tell the tale of the tape once the season's over but check these numbers out from the chronicle article above • 98.5 — Points per game for Rockets with Tracy McGrady. • 80.6 — Points per game for Rockets without McGrady. • 2-0 — Record with McGrady • 0-3 — Record without McGrady.
Can't wait till R2k posts the vids. what a game by Mcgrady. I think this game should give back the confidense of Alston and DA. Now lets see how do we do against these good teams on the road. With T-mac back, we can def. win every single game.
JVG needs to realize that Luther is like Mike James. He can shoot like MJ and he can penetrate. The only thing that is different is that when MJ penetrates he usually finishes, but Luther can't finish. He is not quick like MJ but he def. plays like him. Hard Defense with good shot, and the best thing is that he doesn't need the ball to dominate. What i would like for Luther to be able to do is to know how to create his own shot when T-mac is on the bench.
I was lurking on the Nets board and went into the rockets-nets game thread. For a halfway decent team, they sure have some die hard fans. Their game thread had like 34+ pages of posts. There were some interesting things being said but I liked this one the best... Nets fan named "Fruitcake", after watching Tmac performance last night says, ... "damn it all those impossible is nothing commercials are actually true."
luther can finish on drives. they just happened to cut him off well in this game. they either blocked his path or had him walking the out of bounds line. in others games he has finished his drives well. mike james missed his share of layups. he wasn't that great. and the best difference between head and james is that had sometimes drives and dishes. james never did that.
Tmac, Yao, Head, Barry and Wesley... that's a lineup I never thought of. That's really interesting and it really worked in the fourth quarter. To go even shorter we can use swift or howard instead of Yao. I think this lineup is really potent against teams like new jersey with no big guys.
