Recently in Tracy McGrady Category

The question keeps coming as the consecutive wins keep piling up for the Houston Rockets.

"Are you a believer now?"

The answer to that question is an emphatic:

NO!!!

I said it last week and I will continue to say this no matter how many games the Rockets win in a row. Until they win a 1st round playoff series they are more pretenders than contenders.

Not to take anything away from their accomplishments, but don't get it twisted. Regular season accomplishments are nice, but post season accomplishments are remembered forever.

I guess maybe they aren't dead after all...

OK, so the Rockets have won nineteen in a row now. I guess I was dead wrong to figure they'd fold like a cheap tent once Yao went down to injury. I will give credit where it's due. Their streak is impressive no matter how you look at it. It includes thirteen straight home games and ten straight by double digits. It also includes seven straight since Yao went down.

Now the real question is that of competition. As I said, nineteen straight is impressive no matter what. But it looses some shine if they were all against doormats. So let's take a look and see.

Of the twelve they won with Yao, five were against what I'd call good teams (two wins over Cleveland and one each over Golden State, Portland, and New Orleans) and two were over total bottom feeders (Miami and Minnesota). So that part of the streak is legit.

But, what about the wins without Yao? Let's see......two wins against contenders (Dallas and New Orleans), a third over a good team in the playoff hunt (Denver), one win over a scrub team (Memphis) and three wins over below average to average teams that you can't sleep on (Washington, Indiana, and New Jersey). I'd say that holds up, too.

The only thing you can really frown at is the thirteen home games. Now how have they managed to hold on so well after literally going down the tubes in years past when either Yao or Tracy McGrady went down? Easy: they have better guys around those two now. Remember, the last time this happened they had a supporting cast that did not include Shane Battier, Bobby Jackson, or Luis Scola, and that point guard Rafer Alston was still a fringe guy known more for his time on the "And 1 Tour" than anything he'd done as a pro. That's three quality guys they didn't have and a fourth who hadn't become a quality guy yet. It makes a huge difference.

But what about the future? Right now they are a game out of first in their division and hold the third seed in the West, thanks to the streak. Well, they have ten of their last fifteen on the road, and they have a horrible stretch next week with five games in seven days against the Lakers, Boston, New Orleans, Golden State, and Phoenix. I don't see them emerging from that unscathed. They've got Atlanta and Charlotte this week, so they can easily stretch this thing out to 21 straight, but I'm figuring that it ends next week sometime. Can they hang on and make the playoffs? Sure, but I don't like them to go far once they get there.

I would like everyone to give a big round of applause to the Houston Rockets for winning 21 games in row. Specifically, give a big round of applauds to Tracy McGrady. I admit when Yao Ming went down I figured T-Mac would go into the tank, But, to my surprise, he has elevated his game and, more importantly, elevated the game of his teammates and for that he should be applauded.

With that being said, this winning streak means absoutely nothing if McGrady and the Rockets don't get past the 1st round of the NBA Playoffs. Sorry T-Mac. Nobody cares if you win 82 games in a row. You have to show and prove in the playoffs to get the respect that you want. So we will revist this in about a month or so and, if you are lucky, you will have that "monkey" off your back.

And then there were eight

Well, I think we have our Western Conference playoff field all set now. With Yao out for the season, you can pretty much forget about Houston making it. So now, the last two spots should be be easily occupied by Denver and Golden State. The other six, of course are Dallas, San Antonio, New Orleans, Los Angeles (Lakers), Utah, and Phoenix.

What order they'll all finish in is completely up in the air because the margin between first and sixth in the conference is only three games. Just think about the mind-blowing fact that Houston has won thirteen straight games and only moved from tenth to seventh. In the East, a thirteen game winning streak could vault anyone, other than Miami, from the bottom of the standings to darn near the top.

And now, Houston will ultimately be fading from the picture. Yes, they did extremely well against the Wizards, but ultimately reality will set in. Tracy McGrady can only carry this team so far, and it will show pretty soon. I don't care what John Hollinger says about their schedule. Some of those gimme wins he's predicting won't be gimmes by the time the actual game rolls around.

This does raise some serious questions about Houston's future. Right now their fortunes are, as they've been for the past several seasons, tied to two players who are injury prone to say the least. Both Yao and Tracy have missed double digit games every season since Tracy arrived in Houston, and that probably won't be changing. Yao's size alone means that he's going to constantly get preak injuries, like stress fractures that derail him for part of the season. You throw in the aging factor, and it will probably get worse as time goes on. McGrady has suffered from back problems for the last five or six years, and that usually doesn't get right over time either.

I'm not saying they should blow it all up, but this type of thing is enough to make you think about it. You obviously don't get rid of Yao; centers who can put up a 20-10 are rare nowadays, not to mention all the merchandising dollars he generates thanks to his huge overseas fanbase. That would leave McGrady to trade. At this point, I don't think you'd get back good value for him, so I wouldn't go there either. They've done a better job of putting talent around them recently, and that's all you can really do.

McGrady has to be the unluckiest superstar ever. First he goes to Orlando expecting to form an All-Star tag-team with Grant Hill, only to have to endure several seasons of carrying the load alone while Hill went through all those ankle surgeries. Then, when he gets to Houston, his back starts to flare up on a regular basis, and then his best teammate starts having injury issues. I remember a few years ago Tracy was being called the best in the game, even between than Kobe. Not now.

You know anytime I can go back in the vault and pull out quotes from my rap career I am going to do it. So here you go:

"I'm talking to Kobe's lady / she calling me baby / T-Macking in the bed she screams Tracy McGrady?"

The play on words back in the day spoke to the point that there were many who thought Tracy McGrady was going to be the next big thing bigger than even Darth. Fast forward to 45 1st round playoff exits later and McGrady hasn't exactly lived up to expectations. This year started off the same with the Rockets floundering around .500 until they launched (pun intended) into a 12 game winning streak that had them #4 in the West. Of course it wouldn't be a T-Mac season unless something went terribly wrong. This time it Yao Ming went down with a season ending foot injury and once again if the Rockets even make the playoffs we will probably be seeing this.