I won't feel sorry for him until he goes through similar calls consistently for several seasons. edit: oh, almost forgot. Did Screamin' A Smith go on an anti-Howard rant because of his lack of production against the Suns? No? odd...
seems to me howard is such a beast, a man monster, he doesn't have to do much at all and you will go flying as if hit by a truck... it'd be hard for refs to make the right call
It's funny how the league promised to take flopping seriously. Well, I guess they did keep their words, they are rewarding those floppers even more seriously, especially those promising kids LBJ and Wade also joined the force as cry babies.
What exactly is your definition of not working in the playoffs? Didn't they make the Western Conference Finals the last two years and simply run into better teams? (or in the case of '04, they lost an all-star for the WCF)
They haven't shown it to work in their favor to get into the NBA finals. Don Nelson showed it didn't work for the Mavericks either. Avery Johnson changed the emphasis and they went to the NBA Finals.
Or perhaps they simply weren't the best team in the West those two years. By your standard, during the Jordan years, no offense other than the triangle "worked" since no one else could win.
That's a good point. Don't forget every year there were 2 teams in the finals even during the Jordan years. You are right though. Dallas's style didn't work until they got rid of Nelson and changed their style. They were able to make the finals then.
I watched the Orlando-Charlotte game yesterday, and it got me thinking the unthinkable. I don't really think that Howard should just be anointed best young big in the East. Sure he's athletic. Sure he's leading the world in rebounding and scoring pretty well. But there's a hometown boy who's quietly becoming the best low-post defender in the game. Emeka Okafor really out-played Dwight Howard last night. Okafor was denying the paint, stripping the ball, and playing great help defense. Dwight Howard turned the ball over 6 times, at couple of which was directly attributable to Okafor's defense. Oh, and Dwight Howard's defense? Okafor and Sean May combined for 45 points on 15/24 from the floor.
