[外電]Yao, T-Mac erupt
轉錄自houston chronicle
今晚有空會讓他變成中文
Yao, T-Mac erupt
Tandem teams for 74 as Rockets topple Raptors
By MEGAN MANFULL
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady had wanted to do more.
So on Monday night with the Rockets floundering below .500
and fresh off a disappointing loss to Charlotte,
Yao and McGrady decided to do it all.
They put on a two-man show from start to finish and led
the Rockets to a 114-102 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
Yao finished with 40 points and 10 rebounds,
and McGrady had 34 points and 12 rebounds.
The two players had never combined for more than 60 points in a game.
"I still had a sour taste in my mouth from the last game we played
in Charlotte and just wanted to be aggressive from the start and set the tone,"
McGrady said. "I took over the game for a minute and then I took a back seat
to Yao and let the big man go to work."
Toronto, whose only win in Houston came in 1999,
never really had a chance despite Chris Bosh leading the team
with 16 points and six other players finishing in double figures.
The Rockets started the game with the energy and enthusiasm
that has often been lacking, and used it to take an early 12-2 lead.
Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady led the charge and accounted for 10 of
the team's first 12 points.
Yao kept the offense going by hitting his first three field goal attempts,
the third one being a banked in nine-foot jumper with 4:02 in the first quarter
to extend the Rockets' lead to 20-12.
Yao left the game with 3:25 to go in the first quarter, however,
and the team struggled to make up for his presence.
The Raptors also started find their offense and slowly crept back
into the game, tying it at 24 at the end of the first quarter.
Sensing trouble, McGrady took over the game when the second quarter began.
He sank a 3-pointer to break the tie and followed it with a finger roll.
He rattled off 10 consecutive points, helping lead the Rockets to a 36-29 lead.
As the Raptors again chipped away at the lead,
Yao returned to the game and McGrady left.
Much of the team's intensity seemed to head to the bench with McGrady.
With 6:57 to go, Maurice Taylor grabbed a perfect pass from Yao
and dunked to give the Rockets a 38-35 lead.
That would prove to be the last non-Yao or McGrady field goal of the half
for the Rockets, though.
With offense coming from nowhere else and the game tied at 38,
Yao again took charge by scoring seven-consecutive points.
He broke the tie with a lay-up. But the Raptors came back and drove
to the hoop in back-to-back possessions to give them their first lead
of the game, 42-40.
McGrady returned to the game and the Rockets regained the lead, 45-44,
with a free throw by Yao.
McGrady made the team's final field goal of the first half by
hitting a lay-up with 38.8 left to give the team a 51-46 lead at the break.
It was the third-consecutive game in which the Rockets scored 50 or more
points in a half. They accomplished that feat only once in the first 22
games of the season.
McGrady and Yao accounted for 35 of the team's 51 points in the first half,
and they continued their offensive dominance in the second half
out of necessity. The two combined for 16 of the team's
first 20 third-quarter points.
"Well, he's 7-foot-6," McGrady said of Yao.
"Nobody on their team is much taller than seven foot, so he had it going.
We just kept feeding him and he took the ball to the basket for us.
That's what we're looking for."
Juwan Howard was the only other player to score until
Jim Jackson's shots finally started to fall.
With 1:43 to go in the quarter, McGrady made a perfect pass to Jackson,
who stood alone right inside the 3-point line.
Jackson hit the long jumper to extend the Rockets' lead to 75-66.
Less than a minute later, Jackson hit another long jumper to
maintain the team's 9-point lead.
Jackson's baskets seemed to spark the rest of the Rockets.
Soon everyone's shots started to fall. Maurice Taylor hit all three
of his fourth-quarter field goal attempts and Clarence Weatherspoon,
who backed up Yao the entire game, scored his first points
since the Dec. 2 game against Dallas.
In the end, however, Yao and McGrady were ultimately responsible for the win.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 140.112.135.190
T-mac 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章
