He threw up way too many contested 3's from what I recall. I got disgusted and walked outside to smoke so I missed a good chunk of the comeback but from what I remember Yao got ignored down the stretch. I'll go back and try to watch the video later. Sick or not, he went 7 for 11 on the night. Don't get me wrong, as far as I'm concerned the primary reason the Rockets lost last night was porous defense. But how T-Mac plugs into the offense is a separate but ultimately equally important issue. He ended up with 21 shots. Behind him there were two guys with 11, one with 10, one with 9 and one with 8. That's not balance. That's an offense that's as sick as Yao and Brooks were last night. And it's ridiculous when you think that the guy said he wanted to be a facilitator.
<br> I don't understand who you want to get those shots? <br> Rafer? Artest? Battier? <br> No one is capable of producing on those shots more than McGrady, as lame as that might be.. Yao isn't the type to go out there and be able to put up a lot of shots. It just has not happened since Rick has been coach. He usually shoots somewhere between 12-18 shots and that's max.. <br> Last night, he played facilitator and scored.. Don't say he didn't get people good shots, because he did. Scola/Artest/Yao blew a combined five or six layups.. <br> This was all on the defense
Defense was the primary factor in the loss, but where and how McGrady fits into the offense is still a huge issue. Put simply, he doesn't. You expect that with a motion offense the team is going to display a balanced scoring attack. Instead you a situation where McGrady is taking many, many more shots than anybody else on the team. There's a reason why the Rockets have a terrible record when McGrady scores 19 or more points. With last night's loss I think they're at 7 and 6 now.
lol. do you bother to watch the games? tracy wasn't even close to the problem offensively the past 3 games. most of his shots are within the offense. when the play is for yao, he passes it to yao. but not every yao's touch results to a shot b/c he gets doubled. and he tried to take over the offense in the 3rd b/c yao was out with this stomach upset and we were down by 16. he kept us within striking distance. the main problem offensively was artest. just watch a sequence between him and battier early in the 4th and u know. if you think tracy remains the biggest problem, you're not going to change your mind.
Maybe the MAIN problem offensively was Artest, but there should be zero doubt that the way Tracy plugs into the offense remains A problem, a big one. The guy still isn't moving the ball, he's still taking contested threes with a defender on him and he's still shooting way too much instead of getting his teammates involved. Don't get me wrong, the biggest reason the Rockets lost last night was horrible defense. But even if they get that cleared up they still have way too many issues to deal with, and McGrady and his play are a huge one.
watch the game again please. tracy wasn't a problem. he penetrated a ton. he didn't settle for the most part of the game. he just has to go harder in fact to actually force the refs to make those calls so instead of those missed shots, they become fts. 5 of his first 6 touches, he stepped foot into the paint and attempted layups. his first touch in the 4th, he went into the paint and tried a layup. 2 of his 3s came down late in the game when we tried to hurry up. tracy's problem right now is he needs to start scoring in the 4th. we can't have him going scoreless in the 4th. that's unacceptable. until tracy starts playing better in the 4th, our offense is going to remain highly predictable.
Good shots don't make up for bad shots. Yes, T-Mac went to the basket for a bunch of his shots. He also made extremely poor decisions down the stretch and jacked up a bunch of crappy jump shots. It's the same old story with him. And what's really pathetic is that the guy was spewing garbage about how relieved he was that he didn't have to be a scoring machine anymore. He sure made it sound like he wanted to be a facilitator. How long did that last? Not even one lousy game. Bottom line: not only did the Rockets look awful on defense this last game but they took a step back on offense. They regressed. Same old Rockets, same old story.
he took technically 3 shots in the 4th. one layup got blocked. one wide open 3 in transition that is technically a good shot that rimmed in and out. the last shot was a bad shot. so it's not a bunch of crappy jumpshots. you know we actually shot 47% and 74 pts through 3 quarters with tracy leading us in scoring. so it wasn't as bad as you think. sure maybe they didn't bust 80-85 pts and on their way to 110+, but hey, it wasn't "that bad" right? it's hard to be a facilitator when your best option yao was in and out of the game with a stomach upset. and nobody else was making shots and we were behind by double digits for the most part. his job is to score when others can't. but facilitate when others can.
Last night was "bad" because the Rockets took another step back on offense. They're running in circles now trying to get the motion offense up and running and time is running out. T-Mac didn't say anything in that interview about how only Yao was able to score. He said his teammates, plural, were scoring threats and that now he could facilitate. All talk, no walk. Bottom line: Rockets when Yao gets 20 or more are 18-2. Rockets when T-Mac gets 19 or more are 7-6.
like i said, yao got his touches. in the first 3 quarters. he coudln't get position on marc at all for the most part. when he did in the 4th, he did. and tracy passed to yao a lot. what do you want? yao to bring the ball up, shoot every time?
How about running the damned offense? It's past the halfway point of the season and the Rockets still haven't gotten it running smoothly. If they make it to the playoffs they're still going to be trying to figure it out while they play in the post-season. That's not a recipe for success. BTW, here's what Feigen said about T-Mac's transition 3 in the fourth: "McGrady pulled up for an early 3 that was open, but that he probably should not have taken." http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2009/02/seven_sickening_losses_and_cou.html
the adelman offense or the force feed yao offense? those are 2 completely different ones. which one do you want them to run? and yay, you found one bad shot. congratulations. now extrapolate that and tracy's not running the offense. good job badgerfan.
The Grizzlies were a team we should have and could have beaten and I think that loss is going to come back and haunt us
If the Rockets just run the offense Yao will get a bunch of touches simply because everybody will get a bunch of touches. I found more than one bad shot in T-Mac's game against the Grizz. I brought up that specific example simply because for some reason you thought it was a decent shot. It wasn't. It was one of many poorly chosen shots that T-Mac chucked up that night.
What the Hell does Yao have to do with it? I think this is about the 400th time I've had to try to explain this to you. Yao's got nothing to do with it. Motion offense = balanced attack. That means everybody gets a lot of touches, not just Yao, not just T-Mac. My gripe with the Memphis game is that T-Mac claimed he was going to be a facilitator. Then he jacks up 20 shots. The Rockets players who came closest in fga after T-Mac had 11, 11, 10, 9 and 8. How is that balance?
