http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-070506 Jazz trio drowns out T-Mac By John Hollinger ESPN.com HOUSTON -- Tracy McGrady held back the tears as he contemplated another first-round playoff series gone wrong. But he didn't back down from his pre-series assertion that it was "on him" if the Rockets didn't advance. "Absolutely," he said after Houston's 103-99 defeat in Game 7 of their first-round series against the Jazz. "I'm not shying away from that at all. I said this team is going to go as far as I take them, and I tried my best. "Maybe I could have made an extra play here, maybe I could have got those loose rebounds that we need in the fourth quarter that we didn't get down the stretch of the game, maybe I could have did more, but it didn't happen." "I tried, man," he said with eyes welling up. "I tried." McGrady did more than try, actually. His 29 points, 13 assists and three blocks were what helped rally the Rockets from a double-digit second-half deficit to briefly take a lead in the fourth quarter. That's nothing new for T-Mac -- he pumped in 25.3 points per game for the series, continuing his career-long pattern of boosting his regular-season numbers during the playoffs. Unfortunately, that has yet to translate into a first-round series victory for McGrady. And with tonight's defeat, it's the third time that T-Mac's team has taken a two-game lead in a best-of-seven series but failed to close the deal. Previously, his Orlando team had squandered a 3-1 lead over Orlando in 2003, and then two years ago these same Rockets lost to Dallas in seven after winning the first two games on the Mavs' home court. Overall, he's now 0-for-6 in the first round for his career, and it's clear that his worst nightmare is being The Guy Who Can't Win in the Playoffs. But for T-Mac to say he could have done more requires some serious nitpicking. Between the points and assists, McGrady accounted for all but nine of the Rockets' field goals, an immense offensive load that helps explain why even his best wasn't quite good enough tonight. The truth is, the Rockets weren't designed to win games by scoring 100 points. Not when all their role players are defense-first types like Chuck Hayes, Shane Battier and Dikembe Mutombo. And unfortunately for the Rockets, a Utah offense that had been stuck in the mud for much of the series was clicking on all cylinders tonight, making it imperative that Houston break the century mark. "They exploited us on the defensive end," said McGrady. "We thought we'd make some changes and after playing them six times, have everything covered, and it just didn't work. First half they shot 58 percent, it was layup after layup. We go over this stuff every day. It just seemed their execution was better." As a result, the Rockets' series-high 99 points weren't enough to bring him a win. And in a game played at such a slow pace, 99 was an impressive total. It was just that Houston couldn't get the stops -- or the rebounds -- it needed down the stretch. "The game wasn't lost on offense ... the game was lost defensively and rebounding, the two things we try to build our team around because they can be consistent," said coach Jeff Van Gundy. "When you give up seven second shots in the fourth quarter and [Utah] shoots 51 percent, you're going to struggle." Houston can point to other failures. The inability of the role players to step up, for instance, with Rafer Alston's multiple misses on wide-open 3-pointers proving especially troublesome (he went 2-for-8). Or the pattern of poor first halves -- Houston trailed at the break in all seven games, and was down by 10 tonight at the break. And of course, there was the failure to foul Utah's Deron Williams in the backcourt with nine seconds left and the Rockets down by two. By the time Houston fouled there were only 1.7 seconds left, and Andrei Kirilenko's free throws iced the game. "There was no good explanation for that," said Van Gundy. But perhaps the biggest reason was simply the fact that three of a kind beats a pair. With Utah possessing Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Deron Williams -- all three of whom had double-doubles tonight -- there was simply too much for Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming (who had a dominant fourth quarter in defeat) could overcome. Boozer in particular was awesome, with 35 points, 14 rebounds and five assists, as he and Williams pick-and-rolled the Rockets to death much as John Stockton and Karl Malone used to in days gone by. That must have been eerily reminiscent for sideline observer Hakeem Olajuwon -- who flew in all the way from Jordan (the country, not the brand) to take in the contest and noted how little the Jazz had changed from his playing days when I caught up with him at halftime. The difference this time was that The Dream wasn't in uniform to pull the game out at the end. Instead, tonight's result leaves McGrady in much the same position that Dirk Nowitzki is after the West's surprising first round -- pondering a legacy of playoff failures. "We put ourselves in a great position to do something really special with the type of season that we had," said McGrady before his eyes started getting puffy. "[It's] just disappointing, the outcome."
i really feel for t-mac. he accounted for all but 9 of our FG. he accounted for 65% of our offense in game 5. this team HAS been on his back
There is, but I think JVG know there is no need to point out the obvious here. Classy move by JVG there.
well obviously people don't agree? they continuously trash T-mac like as if all his shots were illfated stupid ass decisions. The man tried his arse off for your team. Act like a true fan and support him. Jesus Christ is this what you guys do to your kids when they screw up in a Basketball game. I feel for him man, he was outplayed 3 on 1. What more can you say about the guy.
I think he could have done more. He could have continued driving in the 4th qtr instead of taking jumpshots.
Are you sure? The reason I question this is because the play was about 2 feet in front of the Rockets bench while Battier (probably the Rockets smartest player) and McGrady double teamed Deron Williams. If everyone on the Rockets bench was screaming foul, foul (including van Gundy) wouldnt they have fouled? Williams had the ball about 6 seconds. I wouldn't be surprised if Van Gundy didn't say let's try to trap and get a steal and if that doesn't work then foul - which sounds fine if perfectly executed rather than foul immediately on the inbounds.
TMac did all he could? In the last 5 minutes, how many times did Tmac go to the basket? Once? For some reason near the end of the game, TMac only takes jump shots. Yao scored most of the Rockets points down the stretch. Without Yao, the Rockets lose about 40% of their offense every game. Yao's a very mediocre rebounder but a very dangerous offensive threat who also creates wide open shots for his teammates - who can't make them. If anyone was "horrendus", you might want to look down our roster and highlight about 10 names who couldn't score 20 points if they were the only ones on the court.
I agree. As much as Tmac has done alot, I just felt something was lacking. Maybe it's the evolution of his game, but the Tmac of old would've overlooked all his teammates and just went in and dunked on their big man to send a message. He did get 13 assists tonight, but at some point in time, he's gotta realise that Luther's gonna do something stupid with the ball, Rafer's gonna brick a 3, and Yao's gonna turn it over despite his shooting numbers. That's when he should've just said "screw it", and went at it himself. Screw the jumpshots, just go in and take one of their big guys out, if only to send a message. Face it, we were outplayed. Our role players were pathetic, and for once, our stars' unselfishness killed us.
Some of this starts up top.... We've ALWAYS KNOWN for years Yao is a good but not good enough rebounder. So what's been done to address adding some rebounding, muscle and length to make up for his deficiencies..Stromile Swift? A hard working but undersized Battier at PF? And any minutes to Juwan Howard? Its taken a 6-6 Chuck Hayes to realize what needs compliment Yao most adequately...Kelvin Cato from 4 years ago alongside Yao woulda been nice for a few stretches......forget Shaq and the hype, dont just wait for Yao to "come around". HELP out Yao. I know the thinking is you're not always going to be good on offense but you can always bring the defense...well, what happens when the D's a letdown? Time to generate something on the other side, the offensive side.....through RAFER ALSTON? Chuck Hayes and Mutombo? Sometimes I just got a feeling of tiredness watching McGrady do so much on the court...he has to be the Rockets best EVERYTHING -distributor/scorer/defender/defender on BIG GUYS/sometimes rebounder. He's an overworked employee in the company, head management. Extend out the payroll budget some and address the need for more workers to lighten up the load.
