HoopWatch

Houston Rockets superstar guard Tracy McGrady did not look that good at all in their second game against the Utah Jazz. But what I liked about him is he has taken full responsibility of how far the Rockets will go in the playoffs. He refers to Houston as “his team.”

McGrady has been frustrated in the playoffs. He has never won a series in his career. He has not gone out of the first round from his Toronto days to Orlando and now at Houston. He is 0-5 in playoff series.

Monday night, McGrady went a dismal 9-of-29 from the field, an even uglier 1-of-8 from three-point range. But this did not stop him from shooting that ball. He made numerous attempts just to get his rhythm, and he did. The good thing was he knocked down the shots the counted the most, including a fade-away baseline jumper over Utah’s Gordan Giricek, when the Jazz were rallying and has cut down the lead to four less than two minutes remaining. The other good sign is T-Mac shot 12-of-14 free throws. The whole Rockets team hit an impressive 34-of-38 from the foul stripe, following Coach Jeff Van Gundy’s instructions that they are not allowed to leave practice unless they make 10 consecutive free throws. And that really did pay off.�

McGrady was good for 23 points in the first game, and 31 points here in the second. Utah tried a gang of defenders against T-Mac to no avail, which included Giricek, Deron Williams, Derek Fisher and Andrei Kirilenko, who fouled out.

If Utah won’t be able to stop Houston’s two vaunted superstars in McGrady and Yao Ming, this may be a short series. With McGrady hungry to get out of the first round, it will be inevitably hard to stop him. I expect bigger numbers from T-Mac as the series progresses.