The biggest difference would be a fresher T-Mac in the 4th quarter. With Bowen out there we were one man short on offense, making it much easier for the Mavs to double T-Mac or Yao. The TNT commentators talked about us being one man short over and over again during the telecast. With Howard, we would've beaten the Mavs in 6 games.
No doubt we will win the series. Here is why, the Dallas Mavs beat us with their role players. They shot at a high percentage. Even if Juan gets toasted by Dirk, I doubt Dirk's going to shoot at a much higher percentage than their role players. So having JH will hurt us at guarding Dirk, but won't bring too much impact. On the other hand, having T-Mac and Bowen guarding Dirk hurt us in more than one way. Our offense suffered a lot and our interior D was cut by half. On the top of that, throw in JH's money shot, rebounds and post game we would've beat the Mavs.
Rebounds, Rebounds, Rebounds. Thats what we missed in the last game (other than buckets, buckets, buckets.) Howard really picked up the rebounds when Yao couldn't. That said, I believe that we would've won the series because we would've won 1 of those first three losses. Rockets in 6 at the Max if Howard was healthy.
The biggest difference with Howard would have come on the offensive end. You had Bowen a good defender, but couldn't shoot. You had Pagett a goof shooter, but couldn't play defense. Howard gives you a little bit of both. That means Dirk would also have to play defense and not slack off and rest.
More than anything.... I think the Rockets should try to achieve a better team "in the mold" of the team that was clicking mid-season with Howard in the lineup. What we shouldn't do, is look at the last game in Dallas and say we need "speed" to compete and compensate for our apparent shortcomings in one game. Speed and athleticism are absolute necessities, but they certainly don't have to be the theme of a winning team. We want to force our game, not adjust to theirs. I think the most interesting theme of this year's playoffs will be who wins the style wars. Full court or half court? It should tell us a little something about the future of the league, and maybe how we should look at our own team.
If my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle. ....that being said, yes, Howard would have made the difference.
I thought about posting something logical and well thought out. Then, before my fingers could reach the keyboard, reality hit. There is a significant group of Juwan "haters" here so logic is irrelevant. Since it's all about opinion, we'd not have lost 3 straight close games with Juwan hititng his money elbow J and giving TMac energy for Q4.
If Juwon Howard didn't get injured and then got the viral thingy.... He would have gotten injured in game 1. If Juwon Howard was the answer to our problems, we wouldn't be looking for a power forward over the summer.
We'd be playing Phoenix right now. Juwon would of been guarding Dirk, and allowed Tracy to focus more on offfense. And Dirk would have to come out and guard Juwon's jumpers, and make Dirk play alittle D.
2 other things Juwan would have given us in the Dallas series: 1) a big man who could run the floor - both on offense and defense. when we were making our run in feb/march, juwan was great in transtion on the cherry pick and also as a trailer. we would've gotten a lot more easy baskets with Juwan in the lineup. 2) Dallas' fullcourt press would not have been nearly as effective b/c Juwan is a great ball handler at the 4 spot who makes good decisions on how to advance the ball upcourt. this would have helped out Sura/James and possibly kept TMac from having to expend energy bringing the ball upcourt. All in all, I don't think we can really overestimate what a player like Juwan can bring to the table versus a Padgett or Bowen. His talent and experience just can't be replaced or made up for by anyone else on the roster not named Yao or TMac. And that's why TMac was already burnt out by Game 7......trying to play his game and cover up for the 4 spot all series long.
Him easily being enough to beat Dallas doesn't mean he was "the answer to our problems". With him and the current team we could handily beat a 4 seed such as Dallas, but probably not a 2 or 1 seed, and definetely not three 1/2 seeds in a row. That is why we need another legit 4--whether he starts over or back-ups Howard, as well as probably an atheletic swingman sub, to go for the real prize. Come on flolks, we took 3 of 7 (with all but 1 of the rest being close) versus the Mavs with league minimum journeymen as our only PFs to see time. As Gater said it is probably not worth the time, but use your brains here.
