Tracy McGrady Takes Responsibility

When Tracy McGrady told Stephen A. Smith before the 7-game series against Utah, "If we don't win this series, it's on me," I thought he sounded like a man who wanted to say the right thing, who wanted to do the right thing ... but maybe hadn't considered the repercussions and responsibilities of it. Last night, in Houston's win, he played like he did.

Utah does a great job of making life difficult for McGrady's partner Yao. They're constantly poking at swiping at the ball, trying to deny him, doubling him ... which, for most of the game, left Tracy McGrady as the only superstar on the court. And when he wanted it to show, it showed. He was fantastic in the second half (and in the first half, too, but he was spectacular in the non-spectacular act of deferring to teammates; he racked up a Nash-esque 10 assists in the first half), making shots, getting to the rim, finishing ... for large portions of the second half, it looked like Tracy McGrady and 9 YMCA-leaguers on the court with him.

Utah runs three defenders at him: Derek Fisher, Gordon Giricek (jumpshot of an assassin, haircut of an accountant), and Andrei Kirilenko. He should kill any of those three. He can post up Fisher, Kirilenko isn't strong enough (as McGrady himself told Craig Sager), and Giricek can't stay with him, either.

You've got to respect what McGrady's doing ... he took responsibility for the Rockets' fortunes, and he's backing it up when his team needs him. You could argue that Game 5 was a must-win for Houston. If they lose, Utah goes up 3-2, and has a chance to close them out at home, where they've played very well. McGrady didn't let that happen.

All of this sort of slights what Utah did, and that's not really my intention ... this was a game played at a pretty high level by both teams. But, like Charles and Kenny will tell you, the playoffs are about superstars. Houston won last night because they had the game's superstar.