In the latest solution proposed to Tracy McGrady's knee problems and season-long struggles, he and the Rockets decided he would play, just not too often.
After a long pregame meeting with coach Rick Adelman and general manager Daryl Morey, McGrady said he would play only one game in back-to-backs for the foreseeable future. This began when he surprised the team by saying he would be unable to play Saturday against the Utah Jazz after playing and feeling "pretty good" the night before against the Hornets. "Me and coach talked about it and I think when we do have back-to-backs, we'll really have communication to decide which game I should play and which game I should sit out," McGrady said. "Moving forward, I won't be playing on back-to-backs and that will be the plan from this point on.
"I can't hurt it, but you go hard one night, the next night, it doesn't have that same feeling. It's really painful, weak. That's why we decided not to play on back-to-backs."
Adelman said he has never had a player with that schedule before and was not sure how he will choose which games McGrady should play.
He said he would likely base the decisions on the opportunity for rest between games, but there will be some tough choices to make as soon as next week when the Rockets have a back-to-back against the Raptors and Hawks, and then another against the 76ers and Celtics, all on the road.
With one day for travel after playing the Celtics, they begin another back-to-back in Oklahoma City and at home against the Knicks, a run of six games in nine days.
The Rockets have already played two games in as many nights 10 times this season, winning the second game seven times. After the three back-to-backs in the first 10 days of January, the Rockets have just five back-to-backs in the last 13 weeks of the season.
By season's end, McGrady said he expects to be back at full strength. For now, he hopes missing some games will make him stronger for others.
"I can't explode the way I want to," McGrady said. "It's hard to do certain things normally I'm capable of doing. I'm kind of limited in some ways to playing my normal way. That's why I have to make some adjustments. It works some nights; some nights it doesn't."
WIZARDS 89, ROCKETS 87: The Rockets played their worst first half of the season but seemed as if they might get away with it. They scored only 14 points in the second quarter, only 36 in the first half. They had eight turnovers in the second quarter alone, and played little defense.
Still, they only trailed by nine at the half. They trailed by 10 heading into the fourth quarter. Then they rallied all the way back and led by three with four minutes left.
With that, they crashed again, making just one of their last nine shots (after 0-for-9 stretches in the fourth quarter of each of the past two games). They gave their last shot to Yao Ming, who missed a turnaround baseline jumper from 10 feet, completing a finish every bit as bad as the start.
