I think the thing to wonder about is how we managed to win so many games without Yao Ming. Without Yao on the court, defenses are wrapped around McGrady and players like Alston, Scola, Battier, and Landry have to make them pay. When they are able to, McGrady gets breathing room. The last 2 games, they have not, so the defense on McGrady is tight. McGrady can occassionally turn superhuman and dominate despite the defense. But, I don't think it's helpful to wonder why McGrady isn't being superhuman right now. He's a good player that is being shut down by team defense without anyone else on the team stepping up to punish the opposition. Yao would keep them from doing that if he was here. Alston was doing that for a stretch and hopefully can find that again. Landry did that before he went out. McGrady's already told you the problem: his teammates have to hit open shots.
It's fairly lame to quote myself, but I just read CNNSI's article where Morey was quoted saying : In truth, I think the responsibility to successfully adjust lies both on the team as a whole, and upon McGrady himself. The thread suggesting that he be benched for a game or two does sound ridiculous, but yet, perhaps it is what is necessary for his teammates to once again "take ownership" of scoring the ball. As psychology states, there are people with dysfunctions and then they have their enablers, and that defines a diseased relationship. I'm not sure who has the dysfunction and who is the enabler in this case, but it seems that the team needs to be able to do the right thing apart from McGrady. The "tiredness" factor simply manifests the root problem of the lack of offensive ownership on the team (or McGrady's too-much-ownership of the offense). In actuality, McGrady having to save the day toward the end of the streak already suggested to me that things were headed in this direction, despite the resulting W's.
