I dont remember stars like Kobe, MJ among others being ask to carry the offense and then play D against the best player on the other team. I know at the end of games for a play or 2 you might switch your best player to cover a guy but T-Mac has been playing D on Dirk way too much. I believe its wearing him down in the 4th period. I believe this is a huge mistake being made by JVG. Not to mention T-Mac gets little rest time. Which he shouldnt but you should have your best roll player covering Dirk so T-Mac can catch his wind on D.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting BigD_95:</div><div class="quote_post">I dont remember stars like Kobe, MJ among others being ask to carry the offense and then play D against the best player on the other team. I know at the end of games for a play or 2 you might switch your best player to cover a guy but T-Mac has been playing D on Dirk way too much. I believe its wearing him down in the 4th period. I believe this is a huge mistake being made by JVG. Not to mention T-Mac gets little rest time. Which he shouldnt but you should have your best roll player covering Dirk so T-Mac can catch his wind on D.</div> I think T-Mac does by far the best job on Dirk. But maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea for JVG to start Bowen again over Padgett, since Padgett can't guard Dirk at all.
it's actually t-mac who asked JVG to put him on Dirk. But i agree JVG shouldn't have let T-mac guard Dirk most of the time. It's better that Mcgrady has some energy left in the 4th to knock down his shots then containing Dirk throughout the game. Because our offensive options besides T-mac are not many, while dallas has plenty of offensive power.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting whatever:</div><div class="quote_post">Because our offensive options besides T-mac are not many, while dallas has plenty of offensive power.</div> well there's the big guy who's shooting 75% for the SERIES.. But I agree, there are a lot of jump shooters but not enough people on the Rockets who can manufacture their own shot like T-Mac, with the exception of maybe Mike James (who's streaky)... I think they should leave Bowen or Padgett on Dirk for the first 2.5 quarters and then let T-Mac guard Dirk when it counts (in the last 1.5 quarters). In the first part of the game they just have to try to stay in the game.. That way T-Mac can be rested for the 4th Q. Another option, if (which is a big IF) Yao can stay out of foul trouble in the first half, they should let him take the bulk of the shots and let him establish himself while T-Mac sits back until the 2nd half..
Ya I think ur right Yao needs to get in there and carry more of the defensive load, lol I mean the guy's 7'6 and He lets guys like steve francis get over him and dunk??? What the hell is up with that?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting johnny33:</div><div class="quote_post">well there's the big guy who's shooting 75% for the SERIES.. But I agree, there are a lot of jump shooters but not enough people on the Rockets who can manufacture their own shot like T-Mac, with the exception of maybe Mike James (who's streaky)... I think they should leave Bowen or Padgett on Dirk for the first 2.5 quarters and then let T-Mac guard Dirk when it counts (in the last 1.5 quarters). In the first part of the game they just have to try to stay in the game.. That way T-Mac can be rested for the 4th Q. Another option, if (which is a big IF) Yao can stay out of foul trouble in the first half, they should let him take the bulk of the shots and let him establish himself while T-Mac sits back until the 2nd half..</div> This is a very good suggestion and that is exactly what happened in game 2 in our victory over Dallas. Yao carried the team with his 30+points performance in the first 3 qtrs and T-Mac finished it off in the 4th qtr. Hopefully JVG will try to duplicate what has worked for him in the first 2 games of the series...
The reason the rockets loose is always the 4th quarter. Tmac is too exhausted and cant be that clutch man we need him to be. We should try resting him a lot more in the 3rd or 2nd quarter. Yao has been great this series and he should be able to handle the weight. But if bowen, our best option, is on dirk and tmac isnt playing, it will really make us loose a lot of offense. I think we should give teh 3rd best guy so far on our team, mike james, a lot more playing time. He can put up the points.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting bplld:</div><div class="quote_post">The reason the rockets loose is always the 4th quarter. Tmac is too exhausted and cant be that clutch man we need him to be. We should try resting him a lot more in the 3rd or 2nd quarter. Yao has been great this series and he should be able to handle the weight. But if bowen, our best option, is on dirk and tmac isnt playing, it will really make us loose a lot of offense. I think we should give teh 3rd best guy so far on our team, mike james, a lot more playing time. He can put up the points.</div> Mike James is hit or miss.. did you see him in game 4? I wish he would get hot soon because we can sure use him.. he played better in the last game tho... which is encouraging... There has to be others the Rockets could use to threaten the basket and pass to Yao other than T-Mac. All they gotta do is throw it near the rim. Dallas doesn't have an answer for Yao within 5-7 feet from the basket. Not even from the self proclaimed best center in the West.
yao and the bench needs to take care of business for the first 3 quarters and let tmac take over in the 4th.
Ideally, of course we should rest McGrady more but its not really possible. With him out of the lineup, theres virtually no offense for us even with Yao in so he won't be getting the rest. Bowen has been doing a better job than Padgett so I have no clue why Van Gundy doesn't switch him back. But I definitely have to agree with everyone- Yao should be utilized when he's in the game. The guy is having an incredible shooting percentage and whenever he gets down there, he usually scores or gets fouled. I think the smartest way to solve this problem is just have Bowen and Padgett guard Dirk for about thirty minutes and then let McGrady guard Dirk for the rest. That way, it wouldn't tire McGrady as much which means he can save some of his energy for offense. However, even if Van Gundy switches up his setup, I don't really think it would do too much. When McGrady plays with passion, I don't really think he tires up that much. Instead, the role players have to step up on defense and offense more. They need to be more aggressive, move off screens better, contend shots, and knock down open shots.
Considering Tracy's numbers in the series, I dont think hes doing bad at all. Hes copping with this phenomenally actually. But it does raise the question that if we do advance, would he suffer a burnout? Hopefully the answer is no and that he can produce numbers throughout the playoffs. He's willing to carry the team and I dont see why not.
well I think that no one could really contain Dirk, which T-Mac has to put up good D and let the bench do the rest
well you have to take into consideration that mcgrady's playoff record isnt so great, so he feels as if he should do more and break that streak as well. he likes to set up the offense for the other players on the court but they seem to defer to him, he creates and creates for yao in game 6 but yao couldnt handle it, same thing with bowen so you guys are just looking at him dropping 30 points a night during the series as him working hard but when in actuality i think its because the other players could not finish off a play, so he took thing sinto his own hands which is what i think
I agree with cheenO. Great players take on the mantle of greatness upon themselves. McGrady is going to be a great player (if he isn't already). Everything he did in this series, he took on himself. Like Jordan, he is willing to play hard on both ends, and will his team to victory. He accomplished that 3 times in this series. However, like Jordan, he needs more people to step up around him. He can do alot, but he can't do everything.
