Dwight Discussion: Dwightmare on Figueroa St. Part Boo

Had a solid game on D. When Dwight plays hard defensively, we will always have chances to win. That is more important than scoring he can give us. He didn't have a good game scoring wise but his d was on point.

last stand wrote:

Rooscooter wrote:^^but I thought Howard was Superman.......

howard is a human being, the best center in basketball who happens to not share the same one of a kind healing ability adrian peterson has.

what adrian did was an anomaly. i'd venture to guess the list of athletes who have returned from serious injury to be an MVP is incredibly small

If this is a conditioning issue, D12 should be over it by now. Even Bynum, who Howard has been compared to, would be conditioned by the time January rolled around despite an entire offseason of rehab.

Dwight told SAS recently that he still feels tingling in his legs when he sits down in a chair as a result of the back injury. This is 4 months after he's already been cleared by doctors to resume basketball activities. This is more than a conditioning issue. This is a case where he may feel tingling in his legs for the rest of his career and may never be what he once was.

Man, D12 was HORRIBLE in the post today, he had like 3 or 4 consecutive misses down there. STEP YA GAME UP BOAYYYYY

Howard was hammered almost the entire night and got a few really awful fouls called on him. He played really hard and worked his butt off defensively. I liked his game.

D12 is not a good post player, I am actually more shocked when it goes in then a miss. With that being said he still needs his touches there to keep him engaged in the game and to reward him for the good screens which gets us a lot of easy looks.

revgen wrote:

last stand wrote:

Rooscooter wrote:^^but I thought Howard was Superman.......

howard is a human being, the best center in basketball who happens to not share the same one of a kind healing ability adrian peterson has.

what adrian did was an anomaly. i'd venture to guess the list of athletes who have returned from serious injury to be an MVP is incredibly small

If this is a conditioning issue, D12 should be over it by now. Even Bynum, who Howard has been compared to, would be conditioned by the time January rolled around despite an entire offseason of rehab.

Dwight told SAS recently that he still feels tingling in his legs when he sits down in a chair as a result of the back injury. This is 4 months after he's already been cleared by doctors to resume basketball activities. This is more than a conditioning issue. This is a case where he may feel tingling in his legs for the rest of his career and may never be what he once was.

it really depends. we don't know what the doctors have told him. the tingling issue could be temporary or permanent. but 4 months is nothing, especially considering that's how long he's been doing ANYTHING basketball related. it's not 4 months, plus another 3 months of weightlifting and training. we'll know more about dwight physically long term next october assuming he opts to not have surgery on the shoulder

been lovin' his game lately. he's an absolute game changer for us on D.

been very pleased with his game since the break. it's not even about numbers, just his presence and activity is impacting the game. plus it means less earl clark playing as a C.

He was in foul trouble today, so he gets a pass on points, everything else he did well. He grabbed boards, he protected the paint, he even hit 3 of 4 free throws in a critical stretch where we needed to not let the Mavs pull away. When he was out of the game, our defense suffered noticeably.

therealdeal wrote::man10:

Howard was hammered almost the entire night and got a few really awful fouls called on him. He played really hard and worked his butt off defensively. I liked his game.

Can't disagree about effort, but he did have a couple of terrible offensive stretches. With Kobe and Nash out, and him going at guys like Brand or Kaman (neither precisely known as defensive specialists), I kept thinking "OK, now it's the time to show us something, show you can be a go-to guy on offense for a key bucket". But the result was pretty awful many times.
BTW, to me it's not just about makes and misses in terms of judging him as a reliable offensive option. The type of shots you take and the type of moves you make to get them are indicative of your offensive ability and telling of your reliability on that end (or lack thereof). Many of Dwight's misses are just awful shots after awful moves that don't make him look like a good offensive player, because you feel that he didn't really have a chance to score there, or he never really pressured the D. A guy like Kobe or Nash may miss some shots, but the moves he pulls before taking them, the space he is able to create, the rythm of the shots, they lead you to believe that, while he did miss the shot, it wasn't a mistake going to him, because he is able to create a good opportunity for himself, and he's likely convert more often than not. I'm not feeling that with Howard.

4th quarter FT shooting :

59/124 : 47.6% ... he's only shooting Fts worse in the 3rd quarter ( 41.6 % )

Last 5 min , game score margin +/- 5 : 16/31
Last 3 min , game score margin +/- 5 : 9/15


He's shooting a horrible 35/94 from 5 to 9 feet on the season

Kobe scored on offense, Dwight patrolled the paint on defense, it really was an unstoppable combination today between the two. D12 didn't have it going & couldn't get into a rhythm with the foul trouble he had to deal with, but comparing when he went out of the game & came back in was night & day. Sounded very committed & confident in the team in the post game interview as well

brand, despite what someone said above, is actually known as an excellent post defender. he did a good job keep howard off his spots, preventing the face-up blow-by move, and contesting the hooks. add in that howard looked to be laboring in general, and you have a bad offensive night. he was playing with some energy on d, which i like. his screens weren't as clean and effective as recent games, but not as bad as they were most of the year.

i'd really like to see him be the difference in a big win at denver. i thought he had one of his more embarrassing games against them the last time la played there. hopefully, he's hungry.

DuddlyDoRight wrote:Man, D12 was HORRIBLE in the post today, he had like 3 or 4 consecutive misses down there. STEP YA GAME UP BOAYYYYY

He got that shoulder re-injured against Portland.. That could explain the terrible offensive game.. The effort & energy was there on D though, which is the main thing we need from him to win. No complaints from me.

Finwë wrote:

therealdeal wrote::man10:

Howard was hammered almost the entire night and got a few really awful fouls called on him. He played really hard and worked his butt off defensively. I liked his game.

Can't disagree about effort, but he did have a couple of terrible offensive stretches. With Kobe and Nash out, and him going at guys like Brand or Kaman (neither precisely known as defensive specialists), I kept thinking "OK, now it's the time to show us something, show you can be a go-to guy on offense for a key bucket". But the result was pretty awful many times.
BTW, to me it's not just about makes and misses in terms of judging him as a reliable offensive option. The type of shots you take and the type of moves you make to get them are indicative of your offensive ability and telling of your reliability on that end (or lack thereof). Many of Dwight's misses are just awful shots after awful moves that don't make him look like a good offensive player, because you feel that he didn't really have a chance to score there, or he never really pressured the D. A guy like Kobe or Nash may miss some shots, but the moves he pulls before taking them, the space he is able to create, the rythm of the shots, they lead you to believe that, while he did miss the shot, it wasn't a mistake going to him, because he is able to create a good opportunity for himself, and he's likely convert more often than not. I'm not feeling that with Howard.

Well I agree that he wasn't reliable offensively today for the one stretch when he was in and we were supposed to lean on him, but he gets a pass from me.

1. He was being hammered all night be someone. Be it that James kid early, Kaman for 8 minutes, or Elton Brand. They were just beating on him and it showed.
2. He was in foul trouble. He's already hurt and he's already got a shaky post game. Getting inconsistent time and sitting/standing a lot due to fouls makes him even stiffer out there.
3. His moves are simple around the rim: quick fake one way and two steps the other way. His offense isn't complicated even if it's ugly. Those ugly shots he puts up usually go in at a higher clip.

I thought the shots he took were good ones and ones he should have made even through the contact. But he really was getting pushed around the rim a LOT. I thought Dallas was really trying to make a point to bully him near the rim.

3-14 is is beyond horrible...i think i could make 3-14 from the halfcourt...

3/14 free throws is pa-the-tic. I'm trying so hard to not be negative about a guy we might be forced to root for for years, but he's making it difficult. He's not a # 1 option on a championship team if he can't even hit half his free throws, he's not even 1B.

yea 3-14 is pretty bad. but it's not like denver was shooting great from the FT line either. our defense was stanky bad.

my goodness.. dantonio needs to have his arse stay back and practice his fts.. i dont care if its late

lakersyunowin wrote:yea 3-14 is pretty bad. but it's not like denver was shooting great from the FT line either. our defense was stanky bad.

3/14 is inexcusable, always. Doesn't matter if Denver went 0-30 or something as a team, 3/14 cannot be excused, learn how to shoot a freaking free throw.

My God, that dunk by 6/8 Faried OVER THE BACK of Dwight
And free throws
3/14 is ludacris, i would make that from halfcourt, seriously.

Weezy wrote:

lakersyunowin wrote:yea 3-14 is pretty bad. but it's not like denver was shooting great from the FT line either. our defense was stanky bad.

3/14 is inexcusable, always. Doesn't matter if Denver went 0-30 or something as a team, 3/14 cannot be excused, learn how to shoot a freaking free throw.

yea i agree it's pretty nauseating. but say he shot close to his average, we still wouldn't have won.

Didn't like his energy in the middle of the game. Hated the free throws. However, thought he played much better in the 3rd and 4th. All in all just not a groovy game by D12.

As others said, 3/14 is just not excusable.
He also looked completely disengaged during some stretches. He turned it up late, but we were already down big.

Well that's my point he has to shoot better than his average, 60% should be a reasonable goal and expectation. Still though, no we don't win on numbers alone if he makes his average, but his misses were doing more than losing us points, they were killing any momentum we could gather.