I can’t say I’m amazed at how much of a non-factor Dwight Howard has been in these NBA Finals. He couldn’t take over in LA, and was almost a liability before breaking out in Game 3. Some have even wondered aloud if Howard has the capability of impacting these Finals. He is, according to David Thorpe, as told to TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott:
Thorpe made the point that every time Howard catches the ball against the Lakers, he’s surrounded by two, three, or four players. One of them, Pau Gasol, is a master of taking the charge. When Howard catches the ball in the post, there is a lot to worry about beyond completing certain steps. And nevertheless, the vast majority of the time he makes a good play, whether with the pass, a post move, or by drawing a foul.
Thorpe made this case, and then we watched Game 3. It was so true: Howard’s every post move is greeted with a hailstorm of Laker help defense. Nevertheless he scores efficiently. Single coverage would be a huge mistake.
He scores efficiently…from the free throw line, when he gets the calls. That doesn’t change the fact that Howard tanked in Game 2, or that, with the return of Rashard Lewis, he may not even be one of the three best scorers on his team. Being in Orlando tonight will help. But will that be enough? No, don’t answer. That was rhetorical.
Dwight Howard’s 21 points and 14 rebounds paced the Orlando Magic last night as they managed to win their first home game of this NBA Finals series, 108-104. The Magic shot 62 percent from the field as the Lakers…holy balls, 62 percent? Did Kobe stay on the offensive end of the floor for the whole game?
After two straight cold performances in L.A., the Magic were more accurate than any team in NBA finals history.
“They pretty much made all their shots,” Lakers forward Trevor Ariza said.
The Magic shot a blistering 75 percent (24 of 32) in the first half and cooled off in the second half when they were only 16 of 32.
Phil Jackson said that the controversial rim touch by Pau Gasol in Game 2 was, in his opinion, goaltending…The Lakers shot 61 percent from the line in Game 3, one percent worse than the Magic fared from the field…Scoop Jackson wrote some ridiculous thing about white people hating Kobe in his Page 2 column. I don’t why it’s called “hating on” somebody; maybe saying that is easier than actually articulating some kind of rebuttal to the conventional opinion. Whatever, dude.
After last night, the Lakers are up 2-0 on the Magic and it looks like this series will be put out of its misery faster than anyone might have expected. This time, it took LA 53 minutes to dispose of Orlando, winning 101-96 in OT. Much is being made of Courtney Lee’s botched alley-oop at the end of regulation that would have given Orlando the win, but that wasn’t the problem.
No, Dwight Howard is the f-cking problem. In the last twelve minutes, Howard had three points, three turnovers, and was getting his ass handed to him by Pau Gasol on the other end of the floor. Howard seems totally cool with letting J.J. Reddick taking the big shots, maybe because he can’t seem to do it. If the Magic even the series at home, the effort will stem from a rejuvenated Rashard Lewis, who was 6-of-12 from 3-point range and finished with 34 points.
I never liked the nickname of “Superman” for Dwight Howard, especially since it originated with a glorified costume change at a dunking exhibition and not from something, uhh, that he actually did during a game. But it fits when you consider the weaknesses–Superman is gullible and lazy and always expects to get the calls in the paint. Yeah, that’s Dwight Howard. Can we give the title to the Lakers now?
Kobe Bryant’s 40 points and facetious attempts at teammate camaraderie was enough to push the Los Angeles Lakers past the Orlando Magic last night in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, 100-75. The Lakers exploded with 31 points in the second quarter, one fewer than the Magic scored in all of the second half. Hedo Turkoglu and Dwight Howard barely reached double figures with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
Highlights of the game after the jump.
The Magic, who punched their ticket to the Finals with solid perimeter play and Howard’s offensive productivity, received neither last night. As a team, the Magic only shot 30 percent from the field, and my limited basketball knowledge tells me that that kinda blows. Howard was a head-scratching 1-for-6 shooting, which is good if you’re playing Russian Roulette, and bad in nearly every other circumstance.
It doesn’t make much sense to frame the Lakers-Magic matchup in these NBA Finals as some sort of a revenge scenario for either LA’s Pau Gasol or Orlando’s Dwight Howard. Sure, Howard’s Team USA did beat Gasol’s slant-eyed Spanish squad in the gold medal game in Beijing less than a year ago. But Gasol carried the bulk of Spain’s production in that game, scoring 21 points on 18 shots, while Howard and his whopping 8 points delegated to the backcourt, which is what you do when you have Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, and only one ball. That’s hardly a fair fight, even if it is against Spain.
That said, the Howard-Gasol redux could be the pivotal matchup in these finals, with apologies to Kobe Bryant and Hedo Turkoglu. Howard will have to not only defend Gasol, but produce on the offensive end to keep the Lakers’ pressure from focusing on the perimeter game. And the Lakers will be a matchup similar to the team that they just put down–legendary point guard, couple of big seven-footers in the post, and about four or five dudes that try to stay out of the way. That’s bad news for the Lakers, whose effort in big games has been hit-and-miss throughout these playoffs. If LA doesn’t storm out of the gate and keep home-court advantage, Gasol might again find his team finishing in second place.
Game One of the NBA Finals is Thursday night at 9 ET on ABC. That’s also the Season 3 premeire of Burn Notice. Eh, there’s always Game Two.
Thirteen-year-old Kavya Shivashankar of Kansas (pictured from 2008) won the 82nd annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, which aired on prime-time TV for the fourth straight year. Kavya locked down her first place finish when she correctly spelled…wait, Kansas? We’re sure that she’s from Kansas? I mean, I thought “Shivashankar” had Rust Belt written all over it. Kavya’s technique of drawing out etymological clues from the judges and “writing” the word on her hand drew jeers from the KSK Live Blog, who joked that Kavya should not be allowed to collect her $40,000 in cash and prizes until she successfully spells her own name. From The Journal:
Ms. Shivashankar was making her fourth appearance at the bee, having finished 10th, eighth and fourth over the last three years. She enjoys playing the violin, bicycling, swimming and learning Indian classical dance, and her role model is Nupur Lala, the 1999 champion featured in the documentary “Spellbound.”
Second place went to 12-year-old Tim Ruiter of Centreville, Va., the only non-teenager in the finals. He misspelled “maecenas,” which means a cultural benefactor.
In grown-up stuff, the Cleveland Cavaliers pulled within one game in their series with Orlando with a 112-102 win last night in Ohio. The Magic were down by 22 at one point, but LeBron’s 17 points in the 4th led the way for a not-so-dramatic finish. Game 6 will be Saturday in Orlando.
