"I thought he did an excellent job of attacking," Dwight Howard said. "There were times where he would miss a shot and stop attacking and I kept telling him 'Linsanity, Linsanity' so tomorrow, I'm gonna try to get on the plane with him and watch his movie so he can just have the confidence and belief that he can do it. It's easy to say that you're confident but to actually go out there to play like your confident is a different thing. So I think sometimes we have to build his confidence up. But when he's playing free, when he's Linsanity, he plays great. I just want him to believe in himself." I know this blurb has already been posted in several different threads but I think Dwight's words are very reassuring. It shows that Dwight is (1) demonstrating team leadership, (2) expressing support for Lin, (3) reminding Lin of his strengths, which is driving to the basket and setting up teammates, (4) reminding Lin that he has the talent to dominate games and what Linsanity felt like, and (5) ordering Lin to repeat Linsanity again. I think this is extremely good news for the Rockets since so much of basketball, and any sport, is psychological and mental confidence. There are going to be TOs and brainfarts along the way but a confident Lin means a more structured offense with PNRs, lots of drives and hopefully and1s, and occasional clutch shots. My concern is that we'll need more than Linsanity to win in Portland. We'll need some maximum Bearding too. But Dwight did exactly what I wanted someone on the Rockets, whether it's Morey, McHale, Howard, or Harden, to do: which is show Lin his own damn documentary and remind him what he's capable of. The Rockets also did something else that was great, which was bring in Elie to teach a history lesson on Clutch City. If Clutch City 101 was for Game 5, and Linsanity is for Game 6, there needs to be a lesson for Game 7!
Dwight has been awesome this postseason. After a meh game 1 he has played like a man possessed the following four games. Even when the refs have been takin him out of the game by ignoring blatant fouls against him and rewarding the portland players for flopping he has kept his cool and avoided retaliating and getting thrown out the game. Hearing this story about him encouraging Lin further cements the good will I have toward him. He is being a leader for sure and setting a great example for our guys. I really would like to see us modify our offense a bit next season to feature Dwight more. Our guys need to learn how to play with a dominant low post threat. If they stay engaged they can get easy buckets of off open threes and backdoor cuts.
Great leadership from Howard and he's proven why he's an elite player. If Lin plays just average and Harden gets out of his slump, we will win this series.
Good leadership by Dwight because he knows what's good for the team. Tell Harden to stop playing hero ball and instill confidence in Lin. Dwight is doing what he can to win the series on and off the court.
Dwight is the leader. I'm sorry Dwight for ever losing faith in you. I was wrong. Give me crows to eat and I'll gladly eat em. Forgive me, I will never doubt you again.
Troy Daniels should show James Harden how to shoot with max confidence again. And repeat his "It's my job" spiel. I feel that Harden has put a lot of pressure on himself to be the superstar on this team and all the media hype and stuff that go with it. Relax, and contribute to winning in other ways.
Trying to keep Linsanity? Don't forget to show him some of the Youtube videos. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2WDK6NCsxzo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Love that Dwight is doing this, but on another note, shouldn't this be Mchale's job? Getting the best out of your player, boosting his confidence, and telling him to play his game, play free, and play as Linsanity? what was it that he said? "we don't need him to go 29 and 9."
eh, I liked it more when dwight, oddly enough when harden was out, would do the kung fu bow after lin scored.
WHA WHA WHA WHA WHATWHAT WHAT WHAT <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/pFpxm0CEgo8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>