Utah at Houston: Where Was T-Mac?
April 20, 2008
Houston-Utah Notes:
Rafer Alston is out for tonight’s game. The suddenly cerebral guard was referred to as “being more familiar with the team’s sets” versus Bobby Jackson, and then spotted on the bench, breaking down a play to Yao Ming. That’s how you go from Ruckers to Rockets.
Early in the first quarter, the Jazz made the decision to focus their offense on the Kirilenko mismatch with Battier. Though Battier is a great defender, he’s no match in the post for the much taller and longer AK47, who scores seven points in the first six minutes for the Jazz. On the flip side, showing his rigid coaching discipline, Jerry Sloan stopped feeding Kirilenko the rock as soon as Andrei got away from posting Battier in favor of shooting jumpers.
It was a very physical game, with some uneven refereeing at times. There was hustle on defense (neither team really had a chance at scoring 100 points), and dozens of examples of players hitting the floor throughout the game.
McGrady early in the first quarter was poked in the right eye (shouldn’t effect him at all), then later got kneed in the stomach, forcing him to ground for a couple of minutes.
The first Jazz run, in the second quarter, was predicated on rebounding. The Rockets started the second quarter with a lineup that surrounded Tracy McGrady with castaways like Mike Harris (most recently of the Chinese Basketball League), two rookies (Aaron Brooks and Carl Landry) and Chuck Hayes (good enough to be a 42-year old Mutumbo’s backup). With that squad out there, the Jazz really exerted themselves on the boards, and a 17-5 rebounding edge (including 10 offensive boards) led to a 12-point Jazz advantage.
Kyle Korver = Peja Stojavic + a conscience + slightly more defense.
After making a mini-run at the end of the second quarter to cut it to a six point deficit, then opening the third quarter with a 7-0 run, the Jazz buckled down again, this time on defense. Somehow guys like Kirilenko and Harpring and even Korver (with a big block) shut down McGrady in the second half. T-Mac had 0 points in the 4th quarter. Between that and the “injuries”… it’s hard to believe he’s Vince Carter’s cousin, eh?
It’s a tough loss to break down. On the one hand, I’m one of those people that has always found the “Tracy McGrady is 0-6 in the playoffs” stat a little misleading - he’s never been on a good team that was even favored in any playoff matchup. On the other hand, it is hard to not notice how he shrunk away in the fourth quarter, somehow unable to find the ball, even while Shane Battier was making big shots. Even while the Rockets were evening up the rebound edge (that would end up 41- 41 apiece). Even while key Jazz guys like Carl Boozer (6:30 mark in the 3rd quarter) and Paul Millsap (30 seconds later, at the 6:00 mark in the 3rd) were sitting on the bench in foul trouble, with four fouls apiece. Or how the Rockets got to the line 10 more times than the Jazz.
Despite all that, the Rockets lost. Hard to feel positive about that performance.
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