I can’t help but look back to the end of Game 6 and think of one play that could win Game 7 tonight. All of the Jazz players and coaches know Tracy McGrady will be intent to take it to the hole and not put up jump shots like he did late in the fourth quarter of Game 6. They know the pressure is “on him” to take on more of the scoring burden, and they will go after him to block his shot and hassle him as a result. All you have to do is look at Andrei Kirilenko following him to the hole on one late possession and contest his shot in Game 6.

I think the Jazz will continue to do that. But it’s going to give the Rockets a golden opportunity to exploit that collapsing defense on McGrady. So if the Rockets need a big shot to win this game, which I think it will, then I love the play where McGrady takes it to the hole and dishes to Yao for a dunk.

I believe that happened at least a couple of times in Game 6, and it’s almost indefensible the way the Jazz defenders come over to help out on McGrady, leaving Yao open.

I also like it when McGrady kicks out to other non-Yao teammates for open jumpers, and I think it’s great as a standard practice throughout all of Game 7. But when the chips are down and you need a high percentage shot to win it in Game 7, I like the McGrady-Yao connection.

I am getting the same feeling about Game 7 that Golden State must have felt after they blew Game 6 in Dallas when the Mavericks ended that game on a 15-0 run.

Golden State had that game in the bag, but they blew it by letting the Mavericks come back from a 9-point deficit with 3 minutes remaining to win it.

The same can be said for the Rockets. They knew they had a chance to steal one on Utah’s court Thursday night, didn’t get it done, but they knew the extra boost they could get from their home crowd could put them over the top. I get the same feeling about the Rockets tonight.

If they had been blown out in Game 6, I think the feeling would be much different tonight.

I will be commenting in the YaoMania! forum tonight from Toyota Center. I’ll be on a plane most of Saturday on my way to Houston, so I won’t be able to post any of your blog comments (at the end of each one of my posts) or approve new registrations for the forum until about game time.

I reviewed all 8 of the turnovers that Yao had on Thursday night and broke down each one below. The facts shows that Yao didn’t really have that many “traditional” turnovers you would think, like mishandling the ball in the paint or traveling. He actually handled the ball very well, and when he didn’t (which was only a couple times), you’ve got to give credit to Utah for playing good defense.

Since many of these turnovers by Yao were ‘unusual,’ it really wasn’t as bad as you might think, which bodes well for Game 7.

Here’s each ‘turnover’ broken down:

1st quarter

11:41 – Yao tipped in a missed shot from another Rockets’ player, but it was ruled that the ball was still in the cylinder, so it was called goaltending. Replays showed that there was no way that ball was going to go in. Regardless, when you think of a traditional turnover, you don’t think of goaltending.

6:20 – Yao set a screen that Derek Fisher ran into, so Yao was called for the block, which was a very debatable call. Perhaps they thought Yao didn’t give Fisher enough room once he was passed the ball. One thing is for sure: there was no way that was a moving screen. Yao was set. They are calling it tight on Yao tonight!

4:47 – Yao was trying to throw a 4-foot pass over his defender to T-Mac for a layup, but the ball might have been deflected and resulted in a lost possession. If Yao is trying to throw a short pass to another player for a layup, a defender makes a good play on it, and it results in a turnover, I can live with that.

4:13 – Yao was making a move into the lane and was going to shoot a jumper over Mehmet Okur, but Andrei Kirilenko came over to help out and block his shot, and forced Yao to shuffle his feet as he was going up for a shot that was surely going to be blocked. That was good defense by Kirilenko.

3rd quarter

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