Tag: Dwight Howard (Page 9 of 11)

      Why can’t the Magic finish games?

      May 13, 2009 /

      In Game 4, Orlando was down six going into the fourth quarter and rallied, only to lose on Glen Davis’ game-winning jumper. In Game 5, they were up by 14 with 8:48 to play and were outscored 29-11 over the next nine minutes en route to a four-point loss.

      Why can’t Orlando finish?

      After Game 4, John Carroll wrote that the cause is four-fold. (ESPN Insider subscription required.)

      1. The Magic don’t fully commit at the defensive end.
      2. They refuse to pound the ball inside.
      3. They fall in love with the three-point shot.
      4. They don’t trust their coach the way the Celtics do.

      No arguments with #1. In Game 4, the Magic allowed the Celtics to shoot almost 53% from the field. In the fourth quarter of Game 5, the C’s shot 11 of 19 (58%) during their tremendous comeback. That is not championship-caliber defense.

      Likewise, #3 makes sense as well. For a team that takes a ton of threes — almost 31% of the Magic’s field goal attempts come from long range in the last two games — they have been terribly inaccurate (11 of 51, or 22%).

      I can’t get in the minds of the Orlando players, so I don’t know how much trust they have in Stan Van Gundy.

      But I can speak to #2…

      Continue reading »

      NBA, NBA Finals

      Magic, Rockets steal Game 1’s on the road

      May 5, 2009 /

      By now you know that the Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets each managed to win Game 1 on the road, but what you may not know is how exactly they managed to pull those wins out.

      Orlando rode a 30-17 second quarter to an 18-point lead at halftime, and led by as many as 28 (65-27) with nine minutes to play in the third quarter before the Celtics finally showed up to play. Boston whittled the lead down to four with two minutes to play, but a timely drive by Rafer Alston and four straight free throws by J.J. Redick helped the Magic hold on for the win.

      Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo each went 2 of 12 from the field, so most of the Celtics’ scoring was left to Paul Pierce who finished with 23 points on 7 of 18 shooting. Boston simply wasn’t sharp; it might have been fatigue or maybe it was just one of those nights. Dwight Howard finished with 16 points, 22 rebounds and three blocks, and the C’s simply didn’t have an answer for him inside. Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu and Rafer Alston combined to shoot 17 of 45 (38%) from the field, so it’s not like Orlando was running on all cylinders, either.

      Meanwhile, in L.A., the Rockets capitalized on the Lakers’ flat play. Yao Ming posted 28 points and 10 rebounds, while Ron Artest chipped in with 21 points and seven assists. But the key was the play of point guard Aaron Brooks, who outscored Derek Fisher (19 to eight) and came up with a pair of timely buckets in the fourth quarter. Along with Kyle Lowry, the Rockets have quickness in the backcourt that the Lakers can’t match unless they elect to play Shannon Brown and/or Jordan Farmar.

      Shane Battier did a nice job defensively on Kobe Bryant, who scored 32 points but didn’t really get going until the Lakers were in scramble mode late in the game. He had seven points in the last 1:32, so without those makes, he was 12 of 29 (41%) for 25 points. Pau Gasol (14 points), Lamar Odom (9 points) and Andrew Bynum (10 points) all had relatively quiet games, which allowed the Rockets to spring the upset. In Artest, Carl Landry, Chuck Hayes and Yao Ming, the Rockets have one of the best defensive front lines in the league, so they have the personnel to slow down the Laker big men.

      Watch Battier’s hands when he defends Kobe’s jumper. He essentially sticks his hand right in Kobe’s face, almost as if he’s about to poke Kobe in the eye. This can be distracting to a shooter, though I’m sure Bryant has seen it time and time again. Battier has the quickness and strength to keep Bryant out of the lane (most of the time, anyway) and the Rockets know they have a chance against the Lakers if they can turn Kobe into more of a shooter and less of a scorer.

      NBA, NBA Finals

      The NBA’s Top 10 Franchise Players

      April 23, 2009 /

      Every so often, I’ll be sitting at a bar, throwing back a few adult beverages with a buddy or two and I’ll pose the following question:

      If you could have one current NBA player to build your franchise around, with the goal of winning a NBA title in the next five years – who would it be?

      Since the 2009 NBA Playoffs are in their infancy, it seems to be as good of a time as any to kick around this question. My criteria are simple – a franchise player has to be able to carry his team, while being reasonably young and injury-free.

      We’ll count down from #10 to #1. My top nine guys were pretty easy to list, but #10 was a bitch. Maybe you can help me decide. Feel free to provide your own top 10.

      HONORABLE MENTION

      Yao Ming, Rockets (28 years-old)
      I love Yao’s post up game, and he is a skilled passer, but the chances are only 60/40 that he’ll be healthy for any given playoffs and those odds are only going to decrease as time wears on. He’s like Robert Downey, Jr. — he’s great at what he does, but you just don’t know if he’s going to be there when you need him.

      Chauncey Billups, Nuggets (32)
      He seems to be more responsible than ‘Melo for the Nuggets’ great play this season, but he’s 32 years old. Still, his effectiveness depends more on strength, steady play and good shooting than it does his (somewhat limited) athleticism, so he should be able to play into his late thirties.

      Al Jefferson, Timberwolves (24)
      Jefferson is one of the few young, back-to-the-basket post players in the league. He averaged 23/11 on a bad team, which leads me to believe he could post 19/10 on a playoff team, and should only get better with age.

      Amare Stoudemire, Suns (26)
      He’s four years younger than our next guy, but he’s already had two serious injuries in his career so one wonders if this is a trend. He also seems to be a little bit on the selfish side and has a rep for being a bad defensive player.

      Continue reading »

      NBA

      Sixers shock Magic

      April 19, 2009 /

      The Philadelphia 76ers were down by 14 points heading into the fourth quarter, and they managed to outscore Orlando 35-19 in the final period to spring the upset. Andre Iguodala is a difficult matchup for Hedo Turkoglu, but with time running down in regulation, the Turkish forward forced the “new AI” into a tough shot, but Iguodala nailed it to give the Sixers the lead for good, 100-98. On the previous possession, Donyell Marshall hit a HUGE three-pointer (with 0:34 to play) to tie the game at 98-98. (Truth be told, I didn’t even realize that Marshall was still in the league.)

      How did Orlando lose this game? Dwight Howard had 31 points and 16 rebounds, but Turkoglu and Rafer Alston combined to shoot just 7 for 23 from the field. Three-point shooting was the difference — Orlando shot 5 of 18 (28%) from long range while the Sixers knocked down 7 of 12 (58%) attempts. Iguodala had a great game, posting 20 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Lou Williams pitched in with 18 points.

      The Magic miss Jameer Nelson. Rafer Alston is a serviceable replacement, but he’s no Jameer. Rashard Lewis needs to play better as well. Fifteen points, three rebounds and three assists is a decent line, but not for a guy making more than $17 million per season.

      NBA

      Shaq, Van Gundy get into war of words

      March 5, 2009 /

      Stan Van Gundy criticized Shaquille O’Neal’s attempted flop against Dwight Howard Tuesday night.

      O’Neal was guarding Howard with about 4 minutes left in the third quarter Tuesday night. Howard made a spin move, O’Neal fell to the court in an effort to get an offensive foul called, and the Magic center easily dunked with two hands.

      Afterward, Van Gundy said he was “shocked, seriously. I was shocked and very disappointed because he knows what it’s like. You know, let’s stand up and play like men, and I think our guy did that.”

      “One thing I really despise is a frontrunner,” O’Neal said before the Suns played the Heat, Shaq’s first time back in Miami since last season’s trade. “I know for a fact he’s a master of panic and when it gets time for his team to go into the postseason and do certain things, he will let them down because of his panic. I’ve been there before. I’ve played for him.”

      “Flopping is playing like that your whole career,” O’Neal said. “I was trying to take a charge, trying to get a call. Yeah, it probably was a flop, but flopping is wrong. Flopping would describe his coaching.”

      “I’m not going to sit around and let nobodies take shots at me,” O’Neal said. “He is a nobody to me. If he thinks he can get a little press conference and take shots at me like I’m not take one back, he has another thing coming. … I tried to take a charge. The rules say when a guy comes into your chest and you fall, it’s an offensive foul. That’s all I tried to do. I fell. I didn’t complain.”

      Yahoo! Sports columnist Adrian Wojnarowski had an interesting take on why Van Gundy would choose to enter a war of words with probably the most quotable player in NBA history.

      “He definitely knew that Shaq doesn’t care for him,” said a coach who has worked with Van Gundy. “He also knows that Shaq does this to every coach he’s ever played for. At least Shaq did it out in the open this time and not behind Stan’s back. That’s what he did when he played in Miami for him.

      “I mean, Shaq ripped Pat Riley and Phil Jackson after he was done playing for them. That’s what he does.”

      As Van Gundy volunteered his critique of Shaq’s flopping after the Magic’s victory over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, the source of his motivation wasn’t his old Miami Heat center. It was Dwight Howard, his guy.

      Van Gundy had listened to Shaq’s relentless ripping of his young center, and decided to make himself the easy target for O’Neal. He’d take the hit. Shaq has been obsessed with Howard. He hates that Howard’s a young center in the city where O’Neal started out in the league, and hates that Howard wears a Superman cape, and hates that, well, Howard’s the next big thing.

      So, yes, O’Neal’s been cruel in his dismissals of Howard. Perhaps Van Gundy started to see that it wore on Howard, that it had gone beyond comical to uncomfortable. Howard’s a nice kid and he won’t fight back.

      It’s funny how ego gets involved so quickly. Van Gundy calls Shaq out for flopping after complaining about it his entire career and Shaq quickly goes on the offensive, calling Van Gundy a “frontrunner,” a “master of panic” and a “nobody.” Shaq is probably not feeling too great about having to flop to stop Howard. Faced with his own basketball mortality, he reacts the only way he knows how — by tearing down his critics.

      NBA

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