Tracy McGrady is not enough

Tracy McGrady gave the Mavs everything he could last night – tons of points, tons of other statistics, even the thrill of a possible back injury resurgence.

It wasn’t enough to take down the state-rival Dallas Mavericks, though. Not enough by far.

We wrote once of this man McGrady and how well he was playing without Yao. How his seemingly healthy back was cementing him once again as one of the game’s great players.

Of course, this was also one of the “lost to the sands of the new server company” posts we spoke of yesterday. You’ll just have to imagine our wonderful use of many, many verbs and adjectives, all put forth in the name of McGrady.

Anyway, he wasn’t all that thrilled with the loss.

“They went smaller in the second half, tried to deny me on the pick-and-roll, give me different looks,” McGrady said. “Their intensity went up and they took the game away from us.”

“It’s pretty frustrating to lose when you play well like that,” McGrady said. “They’re a great team, we knew that. That’s why I attacked early. But it wasn’t enough. We still have a ways to go before we catch up to this team.”

Yeah the Mavs are just elite – no other way to say it.

The Rockets (like the Cavaliers – yeah, we said it) aren’t there yet, despite Marc Stein and the rest of the Power Poll Patrol sticking them up in their top fives all over the internet.

Maybe if they’ve got Yao they can be there. Maybe.

Without the man in the middle (who’s from China), they’re just “Tracy McGrady and some other player who are able to sometimes win games”. That’s not a team you’ll pick in the Playoffs.

Certainly nobody will claim HOU could beat PHX/DAL/SAS/THX, but think about this – would you pick the Rockets against the Lakers? Utah? New-look Denver? (Yeah, maybe them. Our point stands.)

Whether it’s history of losing or history of injuries to the big two, our contention is that the Houston Rockets are the worst team in the history of the NBA, and as our stats have now shown, that’s completely accurate.