i hate it when people bring up heart and toughness with tmac. dude poured his heart out on the floor last night. he did everything adelman wanted him to do. 23, 13, 9, 3, 2 is just not good enough. he obviously could have done better in the fourth, but i was proud of him. what he did when we were down 10 in the first half and everything was against us was phenomenal. you can see his refusal to lose. but he obviously ran out of gas. i really wished i could have gone out there and helped him out b/c nobody else except jor bobby did. literally all of my homies who are not rockets fan that watch the game felt sorry for the dude. it was like tmac was alone out there for most of the game. but i believe in the team. the role players will step up and we will have our best game soon.
You are so full of crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't even know where to start. A guy is one assist away from a triple double and has a number of blocks and you write this crap. He was worn the hell out after Utah ran at him all night and he had to do so much. Other guys just seem timid and afraid to shoot right now. Yeah, I would like to see more 4th quarter production, but its just not realistic when he has worked so hard all game, to expect him to have the energy to keep it up. Where's Carl Landry? It seems he's not getting much playing time or he's not getting the ball when he does. Wish Aaron Brooks, and Bobby Jackson would take some more shots from 3 point range, etc. Seem scared to shoot, especially from outside. Luther Head seems like he nervous or something also, as he was totally off last night with major bricks. Novak, I don't remember playing last night, but in the first game when he was in there he got hardly any shots and was a defensive liability. If he gets back in the game it needs to be for short durations as mainly a spot up shooter. Get him the ball to shoot if he's in there or else don't play him. Battier has not had near enough touches so he doesn't seem involved like he should. He's shot great when they've got the ball to him, so I don't know why they don't do that more. Our guys just need to take there shots and play a more free flowing game. We need to make some free throws, that's killing us. Of course we need Rafer back. He is sorely missed. Hopefully he will return on Wednesday and be able to help, but I feel like that is probably rushing him back and he might not be able to. Tracy can't do it by himself. It's unfortunate that were not only missing Yao, but also Rafer. Rafer (healthy) might add 10-20 points or more from his scoring and helping our offense flow better. Also, Utah is probably as good as anyone in the west. It's unfortunate to play them first, and especially without our starting point guard. They might very well go to the finals, I think we would have been better off playing anyone but them. I just really can't stand to read this junk about Tracy anymore. He played great, and just didn't get a whole lot of help. Utah got great play across the board, so don't put this on Tracy. Also, this whole thing about him never advancing has become such an idiotic cliche that people just like to run off. These teams never would have even been in the playoffs if it wasn't for him, and he's always elevated his game.
Exactly. He had a great game doing everything he could on both ends of the floor. He was blocking shots, hustling for loose balls, rebounding, sprinting to get back on defense, etc. I had to work and didn't get to watch any of the first half, but I could still see that from home on my TV watching the 2nd half. It is sad to think that people went to the game and "saw it up close" and couldn't see it.
Not sure why my post showed up twice, and see no way to edit or delete one. Having connection problems, which must have caused it.
Actually, I'm not. Listening to 790 today on the way home from work, David Dalati ran a sportsflash. (I believe it was 790 not 610 b/c i generally listen to Palillo) The segment on the Rockets was that they met today for an hour to review last night's game. Then Dalati played a clip from a Tmac interview from after that meeting. Tmac said: - it's tough when you're the primary scorer and they're focused on you. (true). I'd have two guys come out on me on the pick and roll (true much of the time). when I faced up, there was sometimes guys (presumably he meant Jazz players) looking over. There were opportunities out there for me to do a little more, but it didn't happen for me. It just didn't happen for me. I believe this is very close to verbatim to what he said. I'm looking for an audio recording because i know folks have made up their minds and don't want to believe this. (i'd appreciate others chiming in to verify these were his statements). Tmac's words today are dead on -- When he faced up in the 4th quarter, he was NOT getting doubled. They played him head up, tried to force him to take tough shots and dissuade him from driving. The bottom line -- he had opportunities to beat his man off the dribbble, but he didnt. he was not aggressive. He passed the ball to others for them to make a play. that's not a tragedy, but it's not what a best player should do. He should demand the ball, should want to be the one that determines success or failure. I'm not denying he played very well for 3 quarters. I'm saying that he should have attacked for the last quarter. This nonsense of him being doubled all day long, that's not true. Try watching the 4th quarter over. i sure did. If you want to give him a hall pass in the fourth quarter, that's fine. I wanted more out of my guy. I have now concluded that Tmac is not wired that way. he's not an assassin. Try again.
See my last post to time zone. Don't just look at the stats and box score. Rewatch the 4th quarter. Tell me if you see him doubled the whole time. Tell me if you see him being passive in single coverage.
I would be passive on a single coverage. He was up against Kirilenko who had rested prior to covering him in the 4th. It just makes basketball sense to me. Im not giving him a pass, but we've seen what happens when a superstar who is tired shoots blanks in the 4th quarter (Kobe Bryant circa win 22 Houston Rockets 2007/2008). So you'd rather he do that, then pass it off to a open man. Im not sure. I know what you mean. But it doesn't make basketball sense to me. He knew he was tired, he knew his defender would make him shoot altered shots (Kirilenko is not like Battier who would face guard but he would alter the trajectory of the shot). If his spent in the 4th, which he clearly was worked all game long then it just makes basketball sense to dish to the open man. Let me ask you, if he kept shooting and missed (highly likely) what would you say? and then what would others say about him shooting?
A couple of points in response. 1. He didn't pass to the open man. As I recall, he dribbled a little bit, ate some clock, and then dumped it to Bjax or Scola. it was like he said, here, you do it. it's not like he created for them. he punted the responsibility. 2. i can tell you that at the game, i was screaming -- win or lose, go down shooting! go down attacking. You're the best player we've got. 3. To be honest, if we had lost but he had gone down shooting, I'd still be a little upset, but not like this. I'd at least respect the guy for not being afraid to fail. the truth is we have no business winning this series. As I said from the outset, we're out manned here. My problem is our best player didn't want the game in his hands.
If Bobby Jax and Scola had carried us to victory in the 4th quarter, and Tmac did what he did, I would be less upset, but still very concerned. I'm not a fan of Van Gundy coaching X's and O's, but i very much believe in his philosophies about hard work. he said you should never accept something in victory that you wouldn't accept in defeat. i firmly believe that's right. there's a bigger picture concern here. Tmac showed in the 4th quarter that he isn't the assassin. he is not the guy that wants responsibility for winning or losing. He is an outstanding #2 player. In fact, he may be the perfect #2 to an assassin. But he's not the guy. And we have to deal with that in the big picture. we need to figure out how we go forward with that reality. perhaps I'm slow in getting to that reality because I am such a big homer. I hate admitting weakness on the part of the team or the players. but here, in the upcoming offseason .. Morey has to understand that the time for half measures are over. We need to go the way of boston. We need to bring in a player that will be our 3rd best player . . . like an artest or maguette. with artest, it's high risk, high reward. he can take the load off Yao and Tmac in the regular season. In the 4th quarter, he can be the one that demands the ball.
I personally felt when i watched that 4th quarter that he tried to create came up short everytime because Kirilenko was stifling him. I suppose your right in that he shouldn't have eaten the clock so much. But if he shot alot, I would say alot of people would say he shot us out of the game. Its a no win win solution. Some of the shots he took in the 4th were horrible, if i was a coach I would cringe. He did need to create more, I wouldn't say take more shots, but he needed to create. He couldn't and thats on him.
I would just like to point out that every other playoff superstar (besides LeBron...who is young) has a great second option to help keep defenses somewhat honest. TMac doesn't. That said, his 4th quarters and free throw shooting are killing us. He hasn't stepped up in crunch time yet.
that's not right man. are you saying he didn't even try in the 4th? he tried, his body couldn't let him b/c he was fatigued. all i know is watching all the other teams in the playoffs, i'm seeing 3-4 guys stepping up BIG to help their best player. i dont' see that with this team.
Why was Tracy the only Rockets that Jazz was worry about? I watched the game last night and there were constantly three Jazz players defending him in the 4th quarter. Magic Johnson commented that Tracy had a superstar game last night. He felt sorry for Tracy that no one else could help him.
this is probably the biggest factor in the whole series. Who can he reliably turn to in the whole game? Who else can occupy the attention of the defence? The man is human and playing 1 v 5 is crazy talk you know.
I watched the game last night. I could clearly see him running out of the gas. He simply did not have any energy to attack.
Yep, that is sad for a 28/9 year old man to be out of gas so soon.... But, that being said, Rick Adelman has to rest him some......in order to get some production out of him in crunch time. 1 point in 2 games in the 4th quarter is unacceptable.......we need him fresh to have any chance....and if that means playing Brooks and Bjax in the back court together....just do it. DD
