I know I joke around a lot about T-Mac being cursed but this loss was not his fault. First off, remember that the Rockets were without their highest scorer and starting center. Not having Yao meant that a team with already bad offense just lost a guy that was worth 20 pts and 10 rebounds a game. Not only that, but Rafer Alston was out for 2.75 of the games. Not only does he contribute 15 pts a game but he also helps facilitate the offense and plays good D.
Let's turn the tables for a second. Pretend Yao and Alston are both healthy but Carlos Boozer was out for the season and Deron Williams gets hurt after the first two games and can't play anymore. Is there any way the Jazz still win? Of course not.
Without their starting center AND point guard there's no way Houston can beat a team as good as Utah. No expert picked them to win. What's funny is that even a against a really good Utah team (that's ranked second overall in Hollinger's power rankings) the Rockets still went 6 games and maybe would have won had Alston played all the games. I still think Houston would have beat Dallas or Denver in the first round.
The second point that I would like to make though is that Tracy played exceedingly well this series and I don't think you can honestly blame him for this loss. His numbers for the playoffs were:
Points - 27
Rebounds - 8.2
Assists - 6.8
Compared with LeBron's averages for his series which were:
Points - 29.8
Rebounds - 9.5
Assists - 7.7
So basically Tracy played almost as well as LeBron James. I don't think you can fault him for that. In fact he was about 88% of a LeBron James. And when you look at how much his numbers improved compared to the regular season there is no room to complain. It's not like he's A-Rod, MVP every year in the regular season and then disappears in the playoffs. (Sorry for the baseball reference).
Once thing they mentioned last night is that Tracy in his 7 playoff series has never been on a team seeded above a 5. So, what you're saying is that his teams SHOULD have lost all 7 of those playoff series? They were always the underdog. Granted, this year and last year they actually had a better record than the Jazz. But this year they had tons of injuries and last year they went 7 games against the Jazz with a worse roster.
I don't know if Tracy will ever win a playoff series. Perhaps he is cursed. I would rather think that he's unlucky to keep getting in the playoffs on bad teams, or without a full roster. The Rockets as a team have also lost 7 playoff series in a row. Nobody has said that they're cursed. Is the player cursed or the team? They were losing playoff series before T-Mac got there.
I'm optimistic though. Tracy still has lots of time. Right now he's 28 years old. That gives him 5-7 more quality years. His scoring has declined recently but I think he has become a tremendous passer and plays very good defense (when he's trying).
If I were the other NBA teams I would be very thankful that the Rockets lost Yao Ming . They're going to be a force next season if they can keep this team together.
