Can somebody please explain 1st round 2005 Rockets vs Mavericks to me?

[tpols]

I'll admit back then I really watched east ball, and would catch west only deep in the playoffs. Regular season wise, I might see 5-10 big games during regular season for the west mainly if they played the Nets. So I remember all the high profile series but dont remember watching this one live.

Anyways... TMAC destroyed Dirk somehow. He had 31 ppg to Dirk's 21 ppg on much better efficiency. He killed him.

But that's not the craziest thing. Yao Ming also outscored Dirk.

I'm serious... is this the only time a team had the two highest scorers in a series and still lost?

[RRR3]

Isn’t this a series that was confirmed to have been rigged?

[tpols]

Game 7 was 116-76. Unreal ass whooping.

Not sure how you could rig that. Jason Terry poured a gallon of gasoline on them and tossed a match in the air.

the JET is one of those dudes that wasnt always consistent, but when he blew up drove a stake through your heart. Did same shit in 2011.

[Smook A.]

I remember the Rockets choked that series. They were up 2-0 HEADING TO Houston and managed to lose 3 straight, then ended up winning game 6 only to get absolutely murdered in game 7.

T-Mac hit a game winner in game 2, and everyone thought Houston was going to win the series at that point but nope. Games 3-5 were VERY close but the Rockets didn’t know how to close out. Outside of McGrady and Yao that team sucked. Dallas was better all-around

[tpols]

I remember the Rockets choked that series. They were up 2-0 HEADING TO Houston and managed to lose 3 straight, then ended up winning game 6 only to get absolutely murdered in game 7.

T-Mac hit a game winner in game 2, and everyone thought Houston was going to win the series at that point but nope. Games 3-5 were VERY close but the Rockets didn’t know how to close out. Outside of McGrady and Yao that team sucked. Dallas was better all-around

True... and that throws an extra damper on it. Not only did they have the two leading scorers, up 2-0 going HOME? I know teams that go up 2-0 statistically have an 80+% chance of winning the series. Going back to Houston must've upped that to 90+%.

Why couldnt tmac close though? He seems to have the perfect skillset and mentality for it. Everybody remembers the 13 points in under 60 seconds.

[HBK_Kliq_2]

Tracy Mcgrady guarded Dirk and they had a few other good defenders on Dirk, it was just a bad matchup in a similar way to the 07 warriors series. Mavs basically escaped rockets instead of beating them.

This year as well as the poor 06 finals performance, 07 1st round exit is all why Dirk had a 'soft' or choker reputation until he saved his legacy in 2011. In 2007 if mavs avoided the bad matchup in warriors, they may go on to beat spurs and win title that year. So some of it had to do with bad luck as well.

[Smook A.]

True... and that throws an extra damper on it. Not only did they have the two leading scorers, up 2-0 going HOME? I know teams that go up 2-0 statistically have an 80+% chance of winning the series. Going back to Houston must've upped that to 90+%.

Why couldnt tmac close though? He seems to have the perfect skillset and mentality for it. Everybody remembers the 13 points in under 60 seconds.
Rockets lost games 3-5 by 4, 4, and 3 points respectively. Very close games. In the 4th quarter of those games, T-Mac shot 1/5 in game 3, 1/5 in game 4, and 2/5 in game 5. The entire series would've changed if he had made 2 or 3 more shots in each of those losses. I know the Rockets didn't have a good roster outside of him and Yao, but as the superstar of the team you gotta step up, and T-Mac was not someone you could rely on to win a series in the playoffs. I've always liked Tracy, but the fact that he could never lead his team out of the first round honestly gives him the worst playoff resume ever for a guy who was considered one of the best players in the game.

[Gougou]

That series was a bit rigged, the refs give lots of foul on Yao.

Yao was a beast in that series but comeon, just imagine if Rockets had a better unit and coach.

Also T Mac doesn't have the tough mentality to carry Rocket very far into the playoff, that was one problem too.

[Shooter]

I'll admit back then I really watched east ball, and would catch west only deep in the playoffs. Regular season wise, I might see 5-10 big games during regular season for the west mainly if they played the Nets. So I remember all the high profile series but dont remember watching this one live.

Anyways... TMAC destroyed Dirk somehow. He had 31 ppg to Dirk's 21 ppg on much better efficiency. He killed him.

But that's not the craziest thing. Yao Ming also outscored Dirk.

I'm serious... is this the only time a team had the two highest scorers in a series and still lost?

What have you done?

2004 NBA Finals

Shaq: 26.6
Kobe: 22.6
Rip Hamilton: 21.4

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2004-nba-finals-pistons-vs-lakers.html

[raiderfan19]

Dirk was sick throughout the series. Also the reason the mavs came back is they threw a ****ing fit about yaos ridiculous moving screens and after two games they finally started calling them. It’s not rigged to start calling actually correct calls.

[Axe]

That series was a bit rigged, the refs give lots of foul on Yao.

Yao was a beast in that series but comeon, just imagine if Rockets had a better unit and coach.

Also T Mac doesn't have the tough mentality to carry Rocket very far into the playoff, that was one problem too.
I wasn't surprised to learn about this, as the mavs had the homecourt advantage since they're the fourth seed compared the rockets' fifth. But it's also hard to grasp seeing them lose three games in a row after leading 2-0. And in your last sentence, t-mac's unfortunate first-round woes in the playoffs just continues.

[999Guy]

The biggest thing in that series was, T-Mac locked Dirk up.. Which gave the blueprint to stopping Dirk with a long athletic wing that peaked in 2007 against SJax and the Warriors.

T-Mac had a hell of a series. Last time he could pretend to be an elite player in his career.

[Sulico]

True... and that throws an extra damper on it. Not only did they have the two leading scorers, up 2-0 going HOME? I know teams that go up 2-0 statistically have an 80+% chance of winning the series. Going back to Houston must've upped that to 90+%.

Why couldnt tmac close though? He seems to have the perfect skillset and mentality for it. Everybody remembers the 13 points in under 60 seconds.

The guy that never got out of 1st round in his career have the perfect skillset and mentality for closing? Is there a logic out there somewhere?

[ArbitraryWater]

Dirk was sick throughout the series. Also the reason the mavs came back is they threw a ****ing fit about yaos ridiculous moving screens and after two games they finally started calling them. It’s not rigged to start calling actually correct calls.

Source? About Dirk