Defending and Defeating Dwight Howard

Admittedly this post is a few days late, but I had to quell my own internal debate about how much weight I was willing to put into the Celtics' last victory against the Orlando Magic in Florida last Thursday.  I don't like the idea of regular season games holding any weight as "statement games," but after some careful consideration, I've decided that last Thursday's victory over the Magic contained a few tell tale signs that could come in handy a few months from now in the playoffs.  

While it certainly was nice to see the Celtics come away with another impressive victory over an elite team, I think that the contest actually said more about the Magic than it did about Boston.  The Celtics pretty much performed the way they should have and won the way they always do, with stifling defense, teamwork and effort.  In fact, the only thing that made this particular win noteworthy was the fact that the Celtics were going through a rough patch and couldn't handle business in their usual way, so seeing them perform as they should became the exception rather than the rule.

The Magic, on the other hand, were riding a seven game win streak that saw them set offensive records against Sacramento and sweep their season series against both the Spurs and Lakers.  During this time, the Magic had leapfrogged the Celtics in the Eastern Conference standings, and were looking like they might just rip like a buzz saw through the rest of the NBA and make the Finals this year.  Heck, people were starting to make the Dwight Howard/Shaq comparisons and prognosticate about a second round series between the Celtics and Cavaliers (assuming that the Magic would finish ahead of either one or both of those teams).  

And then the Celtics proceeded to dismantle the Magic, despite surrendering eight offensive rebounds in the first quarter.  Most impressive was the way in which the Celtics handled Dwight Howard, holding him to a pedestrian 11 points, 11 rebounds and only three blocks before fouling him out with five minutes to go.  In fact, the Celtics pretty much shut Howard down after the first quarter behind some inspired defense from Kendrick Perkins and Glen "Big Baby" Davis.  No, that's not a misprint, Dwight "the-best-center-in-the-game" Howard was absolutely shut down by Glen freaking Davis.  Would you like to know how?  (That's a rhetorical question, by the way.  I'm going to tell you whether you want to hear it or not).

The Celtics employed an absolutely brilliant strategy to stop Howard, and to be honest, it was so complicated I doubt that most of you will be able to follow it, but here it goes anyways.  The Celtics kept Howard out of the paint and away from the basket, and magically, he couldn't score (Ta-Da!).  Gee, that was complicated, almost as deep as trapping Kobe in a late game situation in order to throw the Lakers off their game and make somebody else beat you when all the chips are down (Sarcasm alert, sarcasm alert!).  You know, it's that kind of intricate defensive game-planning that gives Tom Thibodeau the image of a coaching genius.  I mean, not just anyone can do this to Dwight Howard, right?

Wrong.  In fact, the Charlotte Bobcats did an even better job on Howard earlier this year than the Celtics did on Thursday night, holding the big man to 4 points and 7 rebounds in just 26 minutes (though the Bobcats did lose that game by 5).  And wouldn't you know it, they used the same strategy that the Celtics did to contain Howard, making it a priority to keep Howard more than five feet away from the rim for most of the game.  And if the Bobcats can do that to Dwight Howard, I'd reckon that the Celtics could probably do the same thing more than once.  Oh wait, they already have (check the splits vs. Boston this year, you may have to scroll down a little bit).

I mean, the logic is so simple even Vin Diesel could understand it.  If you have a player who is only effective (albeit extremely effective) near the basket, then keep him away from it and you should have success in defending him.  You see, as good and as dominant as Dwight Howard is, he has only one reliable move on offense, which is the slam dunk.  Almost half of Howard's baskets this year have been dunks, and after watching him several times this year, I can honestly say that he really doesn't have another reliable move in his arsenal.  

Howard's jump-hook looks only slightly better than Greg Oden's at this point, and his footwork isn't even that much better.  Although Dwight did hit two early jump hooks against the Celtics (one with each hand), after that he returned to form and missed pretty much everything that wasn't at point blank range.  Howard was consistently getting the ball outside of the paint, and because of his poor footwork (and Big Baby's giant ass), he wasn't able to get to the rim and find the same high percentage looks he normally gets.  

And even worse than getting shredded by Big Baby on the other end (Davis went off for 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting and 4 rebounds in 21 minutes), was the fact that the Celtics didn't even have to double Howard down low.  Even though Baby was giving up more than 6" of height to Howard, he was able to effectively defend Howard 1-on-1 for most of the evening.  With such a height advantage for Howard, the Celtics were effectively conceding any kind of over-the-top move Howard wanted all night long, but because Howard has no other reliable moves, this mismatch didn't matter a lick and the other Celtics were able to concentrate on defending Orlando's other dangerous weapons.

Now, I haven't gotten this officially confirmed by the Association yet, but I'm proposing that if you get shut down by Glen Davis, then you don't deserve to be in the MVP discussion that season.  Actually, even if it hadn't been Davis who had shut Howard down, I'd still say that Howard doesn't deserve any MVP nods or votes for defensive player of the year, for that matter.  I'd put him up there in the discussion for most overhyped player of the year (though I fear he might lose that one too to Kobe Bryant), but that's about it (he's a guy with one move who can't pass, hit free-throws or do anything but block a shot into the third row and give is opponents another chance to run a set play.  And he got shut down by Glen Davis!!!!!!!!  End of discussion).

While I'm not about to go way out there and say after Thursday's win that the Celtics will repeat as champions and that they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, I will say that as good as Orlando is, I don't fear them that much and I don't think that the Celtics should either.  Also, I fear Jameer Nelson, Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis far more than I fear Howard at this point.  A few years from now if Dwight can actually refine his game (like Amare Stoudemire did in Phoenix) and become a dynamic player who plays with consistent intensity on both ends of the floor, things will change for sure.  But until then, I'm only prepared to acknowledge one legitimate obstacle in the Celtics' path towards a repeat championship, and he wears #23 and plays in Cleveland.