Since so much has been made about T-Mac never getting out of the first round I went back to look and see how he fared through the years when facing elimination. As Rockets fans I'm sure you recall the 1994 and 1995 teams and how well they did (8-0) when faced with elimination. T-Mac 2000 0-1 2001 1-1 2002 0-1 2003 0-1 2005 1-1 2007 0-1 2008 1-0 Total 3-6 Overall not good by any means and he's going to have to exceed his entire career win total against elimination coming into this season if he's to get the 800 lb gorilla off his back this year. I sure hope he does cause I'm tired of hearing about it not to mention that whole disdain of the Jazz thing.
since I can't seem to find the edit function I added commentary on the years 2000 0-1 swept as 6 seed 2001 1-1 lost 1-3 as 7 seed 2002 0-1 lost 1-3 as 5 seed 2003 0-1 up 3-1 lost in 7 as 8 seed 2005 1-1 up 2-0 lost in 7 as 5 seed 2007 0-1 up 2-0 & 3-2 lost in 7 as 5 seed w/ homecourt 2008 1-0 down 3-1 as 5 seed w/ homecourt total 3-6 Only twice has T-Mac started a playoff series at home and both times it was as the lower seed. It's hard to hold him too terribly accountable for the early failures considering even with the 3-1 advantage the Magic were still the Eastern Conference's 8th seed. The three losses in Houston have been much tougher to take as we were in good shape in the first two early on.
Just a little something to ponder... 96-97 lost in 3 to the Rockets - teammate: Starbury and Gugliotta 97-98 lost in 5 to the Sonics - teammates: same as above 98-99 lost in 4 to the Spurs - teammate: Starbury and Joe Smith 99-00 lost in 4 to the Blazers - teammates: Joe Smith, Brandon, and Wally 00-01 lost in 4 to the Spurs - teammates: same as above plus Chauncy 01-02 lost in 3 to the Mavericks - teammates: same as above 02-03 lost in 6 to the Lakers - teammates: Wally, Hudson, Smith 03-04 WON IN 5 against Denver (#8 SEED) - teammates: Cassell, Sprewell KEVIN GARNETT 0-7 in the first round before winnnig his first series thanks to Cassell and Sprewell also being the #1 seed helped because they played a crappy nuggets team in the first round - Melo's 1st year! T-MAC 0-7, playing his 8th playoff series without the main guy on the team and taking a tough Jazz team, predicted by most to go to the Conference Finals and by some to the finals, to a 6 game series with numerous injuries! AND IT AIN'T OVER TIL THE FAT LADY SINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
