Thoughts on Mavs – Rockets

• 6:50 left in the 1^st – McGrady makes a nice pass but didn’t seem to have much of a burst in his step.
• 6:20 left in the 1^st – McGrady blocks Dirk in the post.  Length.
• 5:45 left in the 1^st – McGrady drives right along the baseline and smoothly passes out to the three point line to an open Ariza.  Another pass no one else on this team could have made.  Lack of first step burst very evident on this play.
• 4:50 left in the 1^st – McGrady cuts off Marion in the lane leading to a turnover and dunk for Ariza.
• 2:18 left in the 1^st -  McGrady faces up Kidd at the elbow, dribbles to his right, and crosses back over to his left and puts up the jumper.  Misses.  Nice move.  Purely skill and ball handling, however, and not indicative of any physical ‘burst.’
• 1:54 left in the 1^st – McGrady nails a jumpshot right inside the 3pt line.
• 1:28 left in the 1^st – McGrady leads the fastbreak, slows down seeing no options, and wisely passes behind him to an open Landry.  Landry misses.
• I will refrain from further comment on McGrady for now until I can devote a full post on the topic.
• 11:35 – Lowry hits his 2^nd ‘3’ of the game.
• Landry scores on a fadeaway in the post.  He seems to be using a different move that he didn’t have earlier in the year.  In these past few games, from either block, I’ve seen him post up, faking to the outside, and then fading in towards the middle.  The initial fake is obviously buying him time through utilizing his quickness.  If I recall correctly, earlier in the year, he seemed to only be fading away from the basket, leading to many short misses and shot blocks.  I wonder if he worked on something with Sikma.  Of course, I could be imagining all of this, so I don’t know.  We would have to go back to the old game tapes.
• With 9:28 remaining the 2^nd, a bit of an embarrassing moment occurs as the broadcast displays the graphic for what I am assuming is a new addition called “Roundball Debates of Perfection.”  The question, apparently for debate, on this instance is “Who is the perfect Rockets center?”  The two answer choices are a) Hakeem Olajuwon and b) Yao Ming.  Now, I mean this with all due respect.  Seriously?  I was slightly disappointed in Bill and Bull for proceeding to dignify this daftness with a serious response.
• Bill and Bull start off the 3^rd quarter with a discussion about Trevor being the man on this team and adjusting to this role.  Readers will note that this has emerged as my greatest pet peeve of the season.  I just don’t understand where this is coming from.  Daryl Morey has never once even implied that Ariza was brought here to become ‘the man.’  In fact, he’s pretty much implied the opposite.  I would argue that much of the fanbase’s frustrations with Ariza stem from the broadcasting team’s perpetuation of this myth.
• 7:39 left in the 4^th – Lowry actually just takes the ball out of Terry’s hands.  Impressive because most steals come in the passing lanes.
• A confrontation erupts with 6:53 remaining in the 4^th between Jason Kidd and David Andersen.  To my relief, it was quickly broken up, as, if his inside play is any indication, David would have been mauled.
• I jest.  I like Andersen a lot and think he can be a real piece to the puzzle.  His interior defense still leaves a lot to be desired, but as I have argued before, this isn’t too great of a concern.
• With 6:03 remaining in the 4^th, Kyle Lowry hits yet another spot up 3, straightaway, and I begin to regret abandoning my earlier project.  I stopped charting after a few games as it seemed that there simply would not be enough data to ever warrant any conclusions.
• Tonight would have been the perfect opportunity for my “Tracy McGrady Closer Experiment” where he is inserted into the game for one final possession.  The team blew a big lead and so you avoid the ‘slap-in-the-face-by-putting-in-a-guy-for-one-play-when-we-just-worked-our-tails-off-to-get-here’ dynamic.  Of course, there’s the whole issue of him sitting on the bench for a good hour and getting cold which pretty much precludes this from ever being more than just a joke.
• As overtime begins, Bull remarks that the Rockets were torching the zone earlier in the game but were shut down after the Mavericks reverted to man-to-man.  Ah, the irony, as I instantly begin reminiscing upon ‘The Steve Francis Glory Era.”  Anyone else recall Steve and Cuttino’s machismo regarding the zone after one of many losses to the Mavericks one year?  Good times.
• With 2:33 remaining in overtime, Marion faces up and travels.  Has there ever been a more unskilled wing do more in basketball history?
• Kyle Lowry had possibly his best game as a Rocket.  I have argued earlier that he already has all of the tools to be a top 15 point guard in this league.  But he absolutely has to develop his shooting at some point in the future.  It’s crippling his immense potential.  I really hope the team decides to hang on to him this summer despite what could be a fairly hefty price tag.
• Final Note: Rob Mahoney eloquently writes, in Hardwood Paroxysm:

“It stands testament to just how good of a coach Rick Adelman is, and just how far pure effort can get you in the NBA. A limited roster of second round cast-offs and undrafted diamonds (or at least opals or something) int he rough is just 6.5 games behind the Los Angeles freaking Lakers. And all they’ve done to get there is everything they said they would based on everything they’ve always had. Daryl Morey simply waited as pundit after pundit (and blogger after blogger) penciled the Rockets into the lottery, biding his time until the scoreboard and the standings could sway the collective opinion in a way he never could.”