http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-070109 Houston's Tracy McGrady and Chicago's Luol Deng entered Monday's game as two of the hottest players of late. McGrady, who had been averaging 35 ppg over his last five games, finished with 31 points. Deng, who had 25.6 over his last five, scored 20. McGrady had the clutch touch down the stretch, scoring 25 points in the second half in an 84-77 win in Chicago, boosting the Rockets to 6-2 without Yao Ming, out with a broken bone in his leg. Questions, please. Surprised by T-Mac's success without the big guy? No -- he's still one of best one-on-one offensive players in the game. With Yao out, McGrady has taken his level of play up a notch. So much attention has to be paid to McGrady, then you see Luther Head step up and hit a big shot. Jeff Van Gundy is a great defensive coach. It helps when they get a low-scoring game like this one. When McGrady's on the bench, you wonder how they can score. Feed Dikembe Mutombo perhaps? His only bucket came when he picked up a stray ball and put it in. When I was with the Rockets last year, we were told specifically NOT to throw him the ball. But look at what the 40-year-old did. He pulled down 16 rebounds, his seventh straight game in double figures (first time since 2002). Ever get hit with one of his infamous elbows? We made him put the pads on in practice. He doesn't mean to hit anybody, but you can't have Yao getting hurt with a stray elbow. Mutombo even got a T for finger-wagging after swatting Ben Gordon. Shouldn't that move been grandfathered in, exempt from the taunting crackdown -- it's his trademark! Actually, it was already not allowed, unless he did it in the direction of the crowd. As for the Bulls, has Deng's development come quicker than you thought? He's been a major surprise to me. I thought it was a big mistake when he came out of Duke after his freshman year. But he's shown marked improvement year after year. Deng already seems strong with a midrange jumper. Could he possibly be the Bulls' solution in the virtually non-existent post game? He's a guy they'd love to get down in there some more. But you'd like to have a 4 or 5 man doing that in the post, and I see him as a 3. At his best, Bulls sixth man Gordon (24 points) seems like a mini T-Mac. Gordon was just ridiculous -- Vinnie Johnson, plus. Even though they tried to use Mike Sweetney in the post early, in the end, it seemed all they could do is take tough, contested jump shots. The Bulls have good, good players -- but they're not T-Mac. Is Kirk Hinrich tired from too much summer game? He seemed to hit a lot of front rims in shooting 1-for-11. He's now 6 for his last 31 (19.3 percent). I'm not a big believer in that. When you're young, that's what you do, play ball. Same reason I don't buy it with Dwyane Wade -- he just has a heavy load to carry. There's going to be nights where he looks fatigued. Jon Barry, who retired last year after 14 years in the NBA, joins Bill Walton and Mike Tirico on the call for Wednesday's Spurs-Nuggets game (ESPN, 9 p.m. ET) Cool to see Jon make an article on the Rockets.. lock if this is posted.
