Ric Bucher: I dont see a Tmac-led team winning a chip, EVER

in the fourth quarter

 

T-mac being 0-6 in the first round does open him up for criticism.

 

This is exactly what I was thinking. I think he's just picking on someone that's easy to put down because of Tmac's playoffs record. It will change this season so his statements won't really hold much weight past this season.

 

I agree...that's why I say Bonzi HAS got to be our 3rd leading scorer and our 3rd option this season....we can out talent someone but we just don't have that one guy with a killer instinct....

 

It's like I said, he lost each time to a superior team. So far I have yet to see one single argument that refutes this. I really don't label him a loser or choker under those circumstances.

Now look at Dirk on the other hand, he's definitely resembled a soft choker having consistently had superior teams choke away in the playoffs, Webber is another that comes to mind, dating back even to college.

I really do not see T-Mac's or Yao's playoff failing as being the same.

Now is T-Mac soft? I would say so, but soft players can still win. Yao isn't even soft at all yet he gets labeled as such even on this board, people don't even want to ackowledge he played hurt and still got 25/10 in the playoffs, a soft player wouldn't have even showed up.

It's all about perception, not reality.

The perception is T-Mac is a loser and soft, the perception is Yao is soft.

The perception is not reality, reality is Yao is not soft and T-Mac although he is soft, is not a loser, just has not had enough help to win yet.

Webber has pretty much on the other hand earned his perception, which is where perception supports being reality.

Dirk may break his perception of being soft and a choker, but so far has earned it, so he has to break it, and still has time unlike Webber. So he hasn't sort of gone through it to the end like Webber yet, but he actually has evidence to support this is what he is and must break that mold now to drop the label.

T-Mac and Yao just have the perception, because there actually is no objective evidence to support there perception. it's just fans and media acting like they should have gotten past the first round, when reality is they should not have.

 

say what? we were down by 16 points in the first half dude. if he didn't put up a fight, we would have seen another 40pt blowout like the dallas game 7.

at least have some justified criticism and not throw around "no fight" words to tmac's character. he put up his fight.

 

that's the thing I just don't know about....anytime you take a team to 7 games, AFTER having a lead on them I really don't buy that they're "superior" to you.....like I stated before I didn't expect us to go all the way with the team we had last year, but I thought that if Tmac had stepped up during certain junctures during that series that we should've beaten Utah....I'll put it like this "man for man" Dallas was better than Miami a couple of seasons ago, but the difference was D. Wade showed up when he had to and in turn his team won the title.......

 

again, has there been ONE GAME in the playoffs where another player (ala yao ming) has taken over and win it for us?

we all are expecting tracy to do this for us EVERY game. but every other team w/ a superstar ALWAYS has another player win THAT ONE EXTRA GAME for them.

during his championship run, dwade had shaq and jwill for that crucial game 7 in the ECF. hell, wade didn't even have that good of a seris v. the bulls in the first round that yr and they won w/ ease b/c of shaq and walker.

this yr, bron had gibson step up in game 6 of the clinching game.

when has someone clearly outshine tmac FOR ONE FREAKING GAME IN THE PLAYOFFS?

NEVER NEVER NEVER. and until that happens, we will see the same fate.

that's why i think having francis + james + bonzi will help. AT LEAST one of them will go crazy if tmac is contained.

 

refer to my post below yours. that's true what you said. but again, we always think back of certain instances where tmac should have stepped up, how about other players stepping up for ONE FREAKING GAME for once.

i blame tmac more than anybody for the utah loss b/c he's the superstar.

but think about it, who else stepped up just for one game to outshine tmac? nobody, not even yao.

 

yes you need help and that's why I wouldn't have blamed tmac if we didn't win a title last year.....because we weren't equipped to do so...but I do think we equipped enough to get out the first round, and in game 7 Rafer and Luther stepped it up down the stretch, but Tmac dissapeared....I just can't give the guy any more excuses especially after the "exhaustion" comments......Tmac talent wise is a top 10 player in the league, but he'll have to develop some type of killer instinct if we ever want to win a title with him...I'm not asking for him to be Kobe or Wade or Lebron, I'm just asking him to step up when it counts and not be seen shooting fall away jumpers with Derek Fisher guarding him.

 

stepped for a WHOLE GAME, not for stretches. gibson stepped up the WHOLE GAME 6 and OUTSHINED lebron. jwill stepped up in game 7 of the ECF v. the pistons and OUTSHINED wade.

i need to see tmac get outshined FOR ONCE. just ONCE.

what do u mean? kobe never got his team out of the first round sans shaq.

wade's playoff avg are not that better than tracy. he doesn't always play well EVERY game, which tmac has to do.

lebron, well, obviously he is in the east.

and again, LAST YR was the first yr he struggled in the playoffs really. i never saw him struggle that much, esp. w/ his jumper.

we'll see how he'll do next yr.

 

The Rockets were the 4 seed and played the Jazz who were the 5 seed. 4th seed is better than 5th seed. We could also mention that the Rockets were more injured than the Jazz during the regular season so the disparity in the two team's records would have been much larger (more wins for Houston) had Yao not missed a large chunk of the season.

The Rockets were the favored team in that series going in.

 

if a team is truly better than another team (assuming both are relatively healthy) the better will beat the lesser team in a 7 game series.

The amount of games it takes to do so, whether it is 4 or 7 has nothing to do with the better team not actually being the better team.

It's just that they are only so much better. Just a little bit noticeably better equals a 7 game series.

In other words that is exactly my point. And it is also my point about the perception versus reality.

The perception is T-Mac should have won those series and he had better teams because he had leads that he "choked away."

The reality is his teams never had any chance to win those series and the only reason they even went to 7 games was because of him and his play. After domination early on teams made proper adjustments, which is why a 7 games series is used, because it allows the better teams to adjust.

The perception is he's blown a bunch of series, that he should have gotten past the first round.

The reality is it was an upset they even went to 7 games and his team should have lost each time.

Look at it this way, should Detroit or Dallas have actually lost the series? No, in fact if that happened they would have "choked" according to the media and the Rockets would have "upset" them.

In Utah's case the media decided the Rockets were the "favorites" because they had home-court advantage. No one even bothered to actually look at which team was a better overall team. Neither did most of the fans. But I know all the real discerning fans were saying after the trade deadline that the Rockets were dead meat in the first round, because they all knew the reality.

Perception = "We have a good defense. JVG is a great coach, I mean the media says so making it fact right? Look he finished top 4 in COY! Yao is dominating. T-Mac is ready to go past first round. We are better than Utah."

Reality = The defense not matter how great could make up for the horrid offense. JVG probably did the worst coaching job of his career. Yao was playing hurt and it was obvious. T-Mac was not ready to go past round one because once again he faced a better team. Utah was better than Houston

 

but your leader(s) are a BIG part of your team and most of the time are the difference makers in a 7 game series....I've seen many cases where one team might be better than the other "man for man", but their leaders step up and win it for them....... when you haven't been out the first round your entire career you deserve the blame just as much as anyone else, especially when you've had good enough teammates to do so.

 

It's simply not true to argue that the Rockets could beat Utah. I am sorry but it is very clear the Rockets got lucky to even win 7 games and it just screams homerism by the fans here that so many keep acting otherwise. It was an upset that Utah didn't beat them in 5 games. Just like it was an upset T-Mac went 7 games with Detroit and Dallas.

People act like Dallas losing to Golden State is on par with Houston losing to Utah. It simply as I say is perception, and all objective evidence contradicts it.

Losing to an inferior team like Dallas did with Golden State and not having a remotely comparable playoff to your regular season like Dirk is choking, and being a loser.

Losing to a better team than you (despite false fans perceptions stating otherwise) and having a similar post season as regular season, which is what T-Mac did in losing to Utah is simply not over or under achieving.


In Dirk's case he failed to meet expectations that were legit. For example winning that series.

In T-Mac's case he failed to meet expectations that were simply not legit, as in fans and media not having the slightest clue that Utah was a better team, although it was obvious. That "failed expectation" was beating a better team in Utah.

People cannot really label T-Mac a loser because he has failed to over achieve, yet that is basically exactly what people are doing.

 

Again, the Rockets were the better team. The records don't lie. It isn't my perception or anyone else's. It is about how the team's performed over 82 games. It is your perception that the Rockets could not beat the Jazz in 7 games and that they were lucky to make it past 5. It is reality that the teams performed at a similar rate during the regular season with Houston doing slightly better thus giving them a higher seed thus giving them an even bigger edge.

Certainly the Rockets did not choke like the Mavs but they still lost a series that they should have won. I never held the playoff losses in Orlando against McGrady. I also understand how lucky the Rockets were to go 7 games with Dallas but the playoff loss to the Jazz was a completely different situation.

 

word.....this team WAS good enough to beat the Utah Jazz but we didn't for different reasons...Tmac not stepping up is one of them.

 

put a healthy Wade, Lebron, or Kobe on last years team in place of tmac and I bet my life that we beat the Jazz..........Kobe carried a mediocre injury prone bunch to at least the playoffs, Lebron was in the east but he still had to go through a tough Detroit team with next to nothing playing with him, Wade won a title with Shaq playing like crap.......great players step up when they have to...Tmac failed to do this against the Jazz.

 

If you put Wade in place of Tmac, Rockets win that series. There's no way in hell Wade would go scoreless for the final six minutes in a game 7.

 

There is absolutely no way anyone that paid attention last year could think the Rockets were as good as Utah much less the better team. It is simply not possible if you paid attention you knew Houston wouldn't be able to beat them.

I strongly, no I very strongly disagree with this notion that they were at all on par with Utah.

In fact often the argument is that "Houston just played like crap" well that's about the worst Utah played all year too and they still won.

You had a coach that was basically sticking to a 7 man rotation, playing Rafer Alston 45 minutes at point guard against Deron Williams, one superstar center that just happened to be the focal point of the offensive design that was playing noticeably hurt and still somewhat out of shape, being asked to play against a front line that is a bad match up for him, Shane Battier as your third best player and logging major minutes, Chuck Hayes and Juwan Howard expected to compete with 3 all-star caliber players on the front line of the opponents, an offensive challenged team versus an offensively well-executed team, and a coach that hardly ever makes adjustments versus one that is one of the best at them.

All of this was painfully obvious not only as it played out during the Utah series, but also to anyone who paid attention during the year, they knew that was exactly what would happen, and if it would not have been Utah it would have been the same result versus another equally paired team (for example any team that could have gotten a top 5 seed). In fact, when they didn't make any deals at the deadline it was already foregone to anyone that wasn't wearing homer glasses that this is exactly what would play out. JVG was blatant about the fact he was going to ride it this way.

How in the world so many fans actually believe the Rockets should have won that series or were better than Utah is quite frankly beyond me.