The world according to Les : "the greatest team ever assembled" was The Steve and Cuttino show Terence Morris Mo Taylor Cato with Moochie earning a big fat extension Les gave us the pinstripes and the toothy dildo, and Les gave us the Toyota Center layout, with the snooze-fest crowd. Les is not a great judge. Finally, of course, Les made a HUGE mistake when he passed on PJax after JVG's NBA officials gaffe and not only failed to fire JVG, after the abysmal game 7, but instead extended him. You don't double down on a loser, Les. You should know that.
it would be lebron and tmac going together and wade and kobe going together. wade and kobe take it inside relentlessly, which is why they are #1 and #2 in the league in free throws (or were as of a few days ago). lebron and a healthy tmac get their fair share of free throws, but neither are like kobe and wade. i really haven't heard anyone argue tmac takes it inside like kobe (i think kobe was averaging 19 ft's per game in his last 4 games coming into this one). as for the thread, it's obviously unfair to compare healthy kobe to hampered tmac. maybe tmac is too easily banged up, but i don't think there's any doubt he's hurting somewhat. when both are healthy, i would give kobe a small edge (well this year i don't know what tmac would have to do to catch up to what kobe is doing). i think kobe defends a little better and takes it inside better, and i think tmac gets his teammates involved better. i've seen tmac put up 30/7/7 for an entire playoff series while shutting down nowitzki so saying the guy wilts is a little silly, and saying he doesn't play hard enough is as well. maybe not as hard as kobe, but only ai and kg really belong in that class. when healthy tmac can be great and hopefully he'll be healthy for more of his career with us than he is now.
I agree Van Gundy's not the probem but he wasn't the solution either tonight. I would give him about a C- for his coaching in this game. He kept running Howard out there and Cook continually ate him alive. And he kept Bowen on the floor too long. It was obvious after 2 trips down the floor that Bowen was not gonna help us. He's too big a liability on the offensive end and too easy to defend. Just force the ball to him on the perimeter, back off, and double TMac and Yao and get in rebounding position for the brick. Hayes, once again, didn't get enough minutes. When he was in there, they brought Cook down low and tried to post him up. That's where we should have left it with Cook burning it up from 3 point land. The Howard-Yao combo is just terrible. I don't know why Van Gundy can't see it. Too slow, too slow, too slow.
Come on, that was completely INAPPROPRIATE. People with comments like this really should be banned from this site. You might not take a comment like yours so lightly if had a friend who was quadriplegic or r****ded.
i think tracy HAS to settle for the outside jumper because of his back. There is no way he can take the pounding kobe does. When tracy was at full strength in orlando he was unstoppable, just go back and take a look at the magic vs bucks playoff series when tmac just dominated.
Just for this game, KOBE > T-mac + Yao... What I am worried about tmac is not that he is injured but he may have lost the desire for this seasosn due to the orckets' poor records....
One thing is clear: When TMac guards Kobe, Kobe winds up hogging the ball and throwing up a lot of junk. TMac is in Kobe's head every bit as much as PJax is in Van Gundy's head.
I admit to only watching the second half, due to the stupidity of the NBA's League Pass, but did we officially throw in the towel tonight? Is there any other explanation for the "coaching job" Van Gundy put on display?
when t-mac is healthy he's every bit as good as kobe or atleast close enough to where i don't wish we had bryant. t-mac is obviously hurting/struggling right now but it's amazing how limited some people's memories are. i do know that kobe couldn't do anything but make a long three when t-mac guarded him.
Well, there were all those rings with that number 23 guy. Yeah, Phil can't win without a dominant center... by the way, I can't believe I just defended PJ... I hate that guy!
Yes, one thing is clear, Kwame>Stromile, I actually wanted him on the Rockets specifically for what he was able to do last night, play excellent post man to man defense and rebound.
being a great player as Tmac, and having a chronic bad back, wouldn't that just conclude that he will not be as good as Kobe is anymore? Its not easy to cure the kind of back problems Tmac been having... .and been having for years as well Just a thought.....
Agreed. I disagree on the injury front...I think he really is getting injured. It's not like Kobe didn't sit out a bunch of games last season. But, T-Mac is not above criticism. As much flak as Yao gets on a game by game basis, Tracy was unbelievably horrible last night. He may have been injured, but if he is going to play that poorly, he should probably sit out - we lost anyway.
I can't believe you're calling T-Mac a wuss. It's so obvious that he is playing through a serious and unpredictable injury, that affects every aspect of his game. To me it looks like T-Mac is doing everything he can to make a contribution without re-injuring his back and going out for another long stretch, which would completely eliminate any chance of getting into the playoffs this year.
Every time T-Mac attacks his nose is attacked by the opposing team. You would shoot nothing but jumpers to if every time you took it to the rim some one belted you on the nose. Ouch!
