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Short Editorial: Duel down the stretch
I think our playoff chances hang by a thread. The teams we're really battling against for the last seed, the Bucks and Magic, appear to have upgraded their rosters.
I still don't think the Magic can win at the rate they won at early in the season when they had Hill, but the additional balance that Gooden will bring might help them (by being some semblance of frontcourt help) will be something. Really though, they're going to one-man-gang their way into the playoffs if at all possible, riding Tracy McGrady.
The Wiz, on the other hand, seem to be hanging by a thread. Stack has missed quite a bit of time due to his groin injury and he still doesn't look healthy in his return. At his best this season, been very good, but he can be maddeningly inconsistent. Some games he just disappears or takes himself out of the game- settling for long range bombs when he's at his best attacking the basket. If he rounds back into form in the next couple of games, he gives us a potent, if inconsistent option, but Even at 40 and with the limitations implied, MJ is a better player than Stack. Our third best player, Hughes, is out for another two and a half weeks with a nagging injury himself. And oh yeah, our remaining schedule is hellacious, but I think the Magic play most of their remaining games on the road too.
The way I see it, our chances for the playoffs rest squarely on the ability of 40 year old Michael Jordan to outduel 23 year old Tracy McGrady down the stretch. Over the two and a half months, he's played at a frightening pace... increasing to nearly 40 minutes a night. I thought he'd break down quickly if he did that, but instead he's playing better and better.
MJ doesn't have to match TMac point for point, I think, because the rest of the Wizards are better (marginally) than the rest of the Magic. Stack, Hughes, and Laettner should be able to do more to help than Gooden, Giricek, a rapidly fading Darrell Armstrong, and Shawn Kemp do to help McGrady. At the same time, however, the onus is clearly on MJ. No one else has stepped up for the Wiz and we can be fairly sure that TMac will sustain the pace he's on.
Can MJ? Can he play 40 minutes another 29 times? Can he keep putting up 25 ppg on relatively decent shooting? If he can... if he can at least keep us in the fight, the rest of the Wizards might be enough to let us squeak by TMac's Magic.
People used to say that MJ defied the laws of gravity, but can he defy human nature itself?
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Short Editorial: Duel down the stretch
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