"Had I came out, that probably would have been the end of me tonight," McGrady said. "It was good that I stayed in and played 41 minutes. Felt pretty good for the most part for three quarters. The last quarter I was really struggling. "The first half, the third quarter, my legs and my movement, I felt like I was moving pretty well. I also felt that way in a couple games and coach said I wasn’t moving at all. So I don’t know." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6203527.html why not just rest him more consistently like at the end of 1st and 3rd quarters? so he can have more energy in the 2nd and 4th.
How can you say that the offense was decent tonight. Oklahoma allows their opponents to shoot .476%, which is the second worst in the league. We only shot 45.9% because the offense was not very good. The Celtic game had us playing against the 2nd best defense in the NBA and we shot 48.6% because our players had easier shots. If you can’t see the difference in the way our offense moved the ball and how the players moved without the ball in the two games, then you need to go back and review the games.
yao shot 3-10. u really think yao would do that every game? he rarely established great position tonight and we played from outside-in moreso b/c yao couldn't establish position and was not much of a factor offensively. AND WE STILL SHOT 46%. v. the celtics, we shot better b/c yao shot better. yao got us a lot of easy buckets (10-13). it's easier to shoot better when your big guys should better. again, i saw BOTH games (and 95% of the games this year). we shot well v. boston but most of them were from isolation plays (hence the 19 assists only). yao simply shot LIGHTS OUT v. boston b/c he got great position. like i told you, our season high in assists this year is 26. we did that several times. all of those times WITH tracy. today had yao establish position, i'm sure we easily bust 110+ pts on these guys. we scored 98 pts without much from yao at all. AND YOU KNOW RAFER SHOOTING 1-7 DIDN'T HELP EITHER RIGHT.
Of the Rockets players, McGrady did play the most minutes this game (41 minutes), but then again, he won't be playing the next night. The same thing happened in Philly, where he played 42 minutes. Maybe Adelman's trying to save the other players for the next night, or maybe he wants McGrady to get that extra playing time. I don't know, but I believe Adelman has his reasons.
it was weird jon feign wrote in his blog that ron mysteriously sat out tonight. he has had good games when he played and he has had alot of off days to rest his ankle. and they expected him to play tonight (on the chron front page before the game, it says artest looks to stop durant). are these guys just pick and choose when they play or what? artest has been moving fine for the past 2 weeks on the court and he still needs time off?
Artest looks better than McGrady but he doesn't seem to be completely healed. Not to me at least. Actually, I've kind of enjoyed having Artest and McGrady switch off on back-to-back games. It's like watching two different teams with different styles of play. It's going to be interesting to see how Adelman merges them together later on.
i think if he limits tracy to 30 mins a night, he can play both games on a b2b. i mean, tracy wanted to play v. boston. but it's coach's call i guess. i think we'll do the switching off until after the all-star break. then EVERY player will play more consistently. heard shane could be back for the knicks game. shane's injury is even more mysterious. we just need to get the entire group back together real soon b/c our 2nd unit is starting to pan out REAL nice with now wafer in the group. brooks, wafer, landry, hayes, deke. i don't know about rafer still. he has looked TERRIBLE for a while now (back to suck mode) but yet still play with that cockiness like nobody can touch him. rick needs to pull him earlier in the future if he started out games like he did tonight.
1 game against the worst team in the league? TMac needs to do way more than that... He had a good game though... Good win for the Rox...
I just finished watching the Lakers game. These days, when I watch Kobe and Grady on the same night, it really stands out how far apart they have grown as players. In 2002: Kobe = T-Mac (roughly) In 2005: Kobe > Tracy McGrady In 2009: Kobe >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> old Grady It's not just the current knee thing with Grady, either. Kobe had similar (if not exactly the same) surgery before the season when he won his first scoring title. He also had the surgery at almost the exact same time relative to the season as Grady did yet missed only 5 games. Grady is simply falling apart, physically. He wasn't blessed with a body designed for 10+ years in this league. Kobe is older than him yet is still playing at his peak. Grady will never come close to his peak again. He was better tonight. He obviously shot better (not great but better) and there was more effort on both ends of the court. At the same time, he still couldn't come close to sustaining it and despite playing the whole 2nd half or whatever, he ended up resorting to jack shots down the stretch and displayed his traffic cone defense and ballstopping tendencies on a number of occasions. We're at about the midpoint of the season now so its hard to keep saying "be patient, he'll come around." He may improve slightly once he gets in better shape and the knee heals but he will never again be in the same stratosphere as the elite players in this league. You aren't elite if you only have occasional stretches of good games throughout the season. Sure, he's proven to be a great playoff performer. Right now, though, I'm not confident he will be able to live up to that reputation this time around. Additionally, it's difficult for him to stay healthy for 82 games. If we do make it past the first round of the playoffs this time, who knows how he will hold up? Hopefully, the stronger supporting cast he has around him this time will be healthy and step up when it matters most.
Obviously, age catches up plus LeBron became talented earlier in his career. I think after this season it'll be clear cut who is number 1.
Regardless... Kobe >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> old Grady LeBron >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> old Grady just to keep it relevant to the topic.
I think you missed my point. That's an interest topic (Kobe vs Lebron) but not really for this forum. I just wanted to use what you guys were saying to extend the point I was making earlier about old Grady.
