It's sometimes publicly bemoaned that Yao Ming never seems to get the superstar credit he deserves, but after tonight I find myself wondering how unfair that really is. Neither Yao nor Tracy McGrady had a great night for the Rockets and both were basically invisible, and really only offensive rebounding (15 total to the Wolves 5) and ridiculously good three point shooting (11-23) kept them in this game. To be fair, both were part of that rebounding advantage, but 25% shooting from the guys who take half your team's shots is pretty sketchy.
The amazing thing is the Yao wasn't that much of a presence in the paint, despite towering over other freakishly tall players like a monster from a children's cartoon and having a remarkably graceful game. I still think of the Rockets as Hakeem Olajuwon's team, 11 years after their last title, because when he played your eyes naturally gravitated towards him, and he had such an indefensible offensive arsenal that opponents just watched and hoped he'd miss. When Kevin Garnett was playing at an MVP level, he was an obvious center of attention like that, because opposing forwards would just slump their shoulders and watch his fade-away.
Tonight, the final turning point was when Garnett blocked a shot by the Yao, forced him to clumsily trap his next attempt against the glass and then tore the ball away. When The Big Ticket on his way down the floor paused to skip and pump his fist towards the stands, the whole crowd got to its feet to get behind the Wolves as they finished off the Rockets, and everybody knew that was all that was going to happen in the final minutes.
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