As all Jazz fans know, the Utah Jazz took both games at Houston. Now they return to Salt Lake City where they are practically unbeatable.
It is very unlikely that the Rockets can win 4 out of the next 5 games, especially with three of them being in Utah.
Jazz Fans are chanting sweep (but they were already doing that after the game 1 win).
It looks to me that Tracy McGrady will not make it out of the first round yet again.
And yet, I can’t say that I agree with all of the good and bad comments that I have been hearing about McGrady from the national media.
TNT, after losing game 2, was talking about his superstar performance that was not quite enough to win the game. I’ll agree that his stats were extremely impressive (especially when you consider that fact that he got almost all of them in only 3 quarters of play). His play in the fourth quarter, however, doesn’t really justify calling his play that game a superstar performance.
TNT also mentioned that none of the blame of losing the game should be put on his shoulders because his stats were so good, and he just didn’t get enough help. Again, does a fourth quarter where he took a lot of tough shots and missed them really mean that he isn’t culpable at all?
In ESPN’s “the Herd” the next day, Colin Cowherd said that he was just a very good player, not a superstar, because he ran out of steam and couldn’t dig down and find extra reserves in the fourth quarter to pull out the win. Is he saying that superstars are different from very good players because they don’t get tired in important games? He also mentioned that a superstar doesn’t shoot such a poor percentage in the regular season and especially not in the playoffs. Apparently it really doesn’t matter what a very good player shoots, percentage-wise.
I’m not sure I really agree with either of these points.
Was it a superstar performance? Not particularly. With a good fourth quarter, it probably would have been, even if the Rockets had lost.
Is McGrady ONLY very good because he gets tired and doesn’t shoot a high percentage?
This is what I really want to talk about.
Somebody can only be as good as the defense allows them to be.
Some people are harder to guard… certainly… but everybody is guardable to some extent.
McGrady shooting a poorer percentage in this playoffs and the last one makes it sound like nobody is guarding him — that it was his to make or miss and he somehow just managed to miss them.
Couldn’t his post-season shooting percentages be lower because the Utah Jazz forced him into taking tough shots? Couldn’t he have gotten tired in this fourth quarter where he wouldn’t have gotten tired otherwise because the Utah Jazz played against him with three and four defenders rotated to keep them fresh and him exhausted?
Can’t you give credit where credit is due?
The Jazz only won because McGrady “isn’t really THAT good”.
“McGrady is overrated”.
Put the credit in the right place!
I think McGrady is a superb player. He certainly has had a problem winning in the playoffs with both Orlando (with Grant Hill injured) and Houston (with Yao Ming and others injured), and he certainly has a part in whether they won or lost because he handles the ball so often, but you really have to place the credit properly.
There were 24 players taking part in those games.
McGrady lost because the 11 players on his team AND McGrady himself could not beat the 12 players on the other team in a seven game series.
Tracy McGrady didn’t win or lose those series on an empty court.