that is just stupid Why the hell would we talk about trading T-Mac when we still playing in the second round??? Rocket River
What game were you watching? T-Mac did not get double and triple coverage the whole night. Kirilenko, Harpring and Korver did a very decent job against him in single coverage for the whole game.
Actually, no. They would either double him right when he got the ball, or they would wait for him to drive and everyone would swarm him. Just a good overall team defense on the Jazz's part. Aside from that, this loss should be in no way blamed on T-mac, which seems to be the purpose of this thread.
if you were watching any of the last few regular season games you could see that tracy had already had his hand/fingers bandaged up. the thing about tmac is it seems like he's lost confidence in himself. he's not MENTALLY capable of carrying teams anymore and take that for what it is. this team is built around...not one but TWO superstars. you have the legitimately better player in yao but he's been hit with freak/unlucky injuries as of late. plus people tend to forget conveniently that this team has at least 4 new players (scola, jackson, brooks, landry; are all i can think of atm) added to this team's chemistry AND we have added a new system. yeah sure we won 22 games in a row but half of that was with a different team. keep the optimism going guys cause outside of scola no one played that well..
All they had to do was shade T-Mac and deny him a shot, because if T-Mac drove past them, he was swarmed inside by the Utah frontline/anyone hanging around in the paint since they didn't have to watch their shooter (since we were missing everything). Since T-Mac's jumper was not falling towards the end of the game, we ran out of options. Yes, T-Mac does exaggerate little things BUT he got hit in the nuts not in the stomach on that play. You could see him reaching around his groin the whole next couple plays and that was the reason he was bent over. You know that feeling when you get hit, like after a couple seconds it really kicks in and you gotta just bend over or kneel for a while. If T-Mac is going to be defended like that, and if his jumper is not falling, he can not win the series on his own. He needs even more help than he got last night. Let's hope the team can pull it together. I seriously wish we had Yao back...it's so frustrating not having another legit weapon.
No need to be an insulting JERK and call out my intelligence of all things? I have been and will always be a DIEHARD Rockets back, as I have been in Houston my entire life. I watch or go to just about EVERY game. Maybe it was some frustration on my part when I made the post. And like I said before, I LIKE McGrady. In all honesty this not just based on the game last night. The guy does NOT have the killer instinct or what it takes to win championships. He has proven that in his CAREER. Sure he can win games and put up stats, but there is a big difference between that and winning when it counts. I guess I'm just tired of enduring the grueling regular season year after year only to get trounced in the playoffs (if we even qualify). It's time for a change. OH, and I am sooooooooooooooooo sorry I accidently mistyped EMBARRED instead of EMBARRASED. If I would have known I would have gotten harrased by half the board over 2 letters I would have run spell check.
when he got injured he didn't have to play...hes the reason we're in the playoffs dumbnuts show some gratitude for god's sake!
t-mac has been doubled and tripled most of his career. Perhaps he has lost enough of a step to where he can't beat the double and triple teams effectively any more, which is reasonable. I do not think he is exerting enough energy on the defensive end and believe he is more capable than what he is showing. If he can shut down Dirk (2005 Playoffs), he can surely shut down korver, kirelenko...
You watch every game and you never see McGrady elbow pad and the bend on his hand? We have to support our team, we lost only one game, the last two playoff we were up by 2-0, so I'm confident
Everyone gets swarmed when they get into the paint. By that standard every player in the NBA draws a "double". If you take off the fanboy goggles you'll give 1) Sloan kudos for matching Kirilenko up against T-Mac in single coverage and 2) Kirilenko and Harpring kudos for doing a good job of staying in front of T-Mac in single coverage, especially in the second half, and forcing him to make bad passes off the dribble.
I do understand the frustration. The playoffs are a reality check, and just judging on last night, it doesn't look like we have the talent to compete. We might make up for it with heart, like we did on the streak, but that really increases the risk of success. But, you just never know. When we lost our last championship, I heard a lot of this kind of talk and frustration, when we were down in almost every series, and some of us kept believing, and it was so satisfying ... when we won it all. Our team needs our support right now, and for us to believe them to as much greatness as possible. ... not calling TMac out for being soft, when he really did as well as he could have under the circumstances. Now there were others who didn't step up ... but not TMac.
I agree and see what your saying. I just wasn't clear to what i was saying i guess.. There were many occasions when as soon as McGrady got the ball he was doubled. When he drove in the lane he was hammered because everyone could help off their man (because there was no threat of an outside jumper being made) which was my emphasis on the "great team defense" i stated, with the help of Houston not hitting jumpers. The Jazz frontline played a very loose defensive set, that technically isn't a double team, but is waiting to trap and double as soon as McGrady made a move to the basket before he got to the lane..
whatever dude, even with how weak TMac you haters claim him to be, he has played more games than Yao during both their time together here. The only weak one we have in this team is Yao, when he was OUTLEAPED by Boozer for a rebound that cost us game 7 last playoffs series. Heck Yao had 6 friggin rebounds in the most important game of his life. Talk about weak.
Way to hate on someone else in a desparate attempt to protect your boy from 'the haters'. I agree with the original poster in terms of being tired of the constant grimacing and embellishing of eye pokes and things like that. Earlier in the year a guy reached in, and it looked like he made minimal contact (if any at all) with Tmac's face and he tried so hard to sell it that he pretty much dropped the ball and let it bounce right into the opponent's hands. As far as getting hit in the nuts, I rewound several times to see where he got hit, and the angle was not good enough to see what happened. The contact was pretty minimal based on how little he drifted in the air after contact. It looked like Korver just pushed him slightly with his body. No windup, no knee, no punch. Maybe he did get hard in the balls, but the fact that people are doubting the legitimacy of the 'injury' is because of a history of him doing these types of things. My problem with him is that he always shows weakness. That gives your opponents a psychological edge and deflates your teammates as well.
