Ryan Bowen is following the unheralded heros of Rocket's past. Pete Chillcut, Chucky Brown, Matt Maloney...
Bowen is a good player, period. He can knock down the open shots, and he hustles, defends with all he has. Dallas didnt have one of this type players right now. They sure need one.
still you and i both know any points scored by bowen is gravy for the team. and also he had a sick spin move on dirk which i thought was goal tended but oh well the rockets won.
Great job by Bowen and T-mac on defending Dirk. I doubt he has another game as bad as this one but hopefully Bowen can help the Rockets contain him. I also wouldnt mind if Padgett gets a few mins. With Bowen in the game the mavs were doubling teaming T-mac off the pick-and-rolls. They wont be able to do that with Padgett in there.
I bet Bowen was one tired Mofo after this game. If they keep playing him like this he will probably die by the end of the series.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3150472 Power forward denied his juice Rockets' Bowen puts up stop sign for Mavs' Nowitzki By MEGAN MANFULL Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle DALLAS - Ryan Bowen struggled to sleep Friday night. The anxiety overwhelmed him. Bowen was about to make his first start in the playoffs and go one-on-one with Dirk Nowitzki. Just thinking about it made Bowen start sweating long before tipoff. That ill feeling never really subsided on Saturday, even as Bowen put together an outstanding defensive effort against the Mavs superstar in the Rockets' 98-86 victory in Game 1 of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. Nowitzki missed 14 of his 19 field goal attempts. He made 11 of 13 free throws, however, to boost his points total to 21. "I was struggling out there the whole game," Bowen said. "It just seemed like I couldn't catch my wind, just being anxious and just being out there. But hopefully that will change. Hopefully I can relax a little bit, though I think it helps to have a little anxiousness and going out and playing." Badger off the bench Bowen replaced Clarence Weatherspoon in the starting lineup because of his quickness and ability to badger opponents defensively. It was Bowen's first start in the postseason and his first playoff action of note. In four postseason games with Denver last season, Bowen played a total of six minutes. Bowen had not even played Nowitzki much in the regular season, but with a game plan of simply trying to stay in front of him, Bowen found success. "The one thing about him is he plays with high energy and sometimes when you play that way, it allows you to play through your nervousness," Rockets guard David Wesley said. "But he played a great game. He's one of those guys that does stuff that doesn't show up in the stat sheet, and we enjoyed having him out there." It's all on No. 40 Bowen hit 2-of-7 field goals and had three rebounds.While Tracy McGrady shared some of the defensive burden, the majority of it was Bowen's. His addition in the starting lineup surprised Nowitzki, who over recent months had made smaller defenders pay by taking them down in the low post. That is why Bowen sat in the visitors' locker room hardly gloating after the game. He understands Game 2 could go differently Monday night. "He missed a couple of shots he normally makes, and if he makes those, you never know how he gets rolling," Bowen said. "He's going to be ready to come out on Monday. We'll just have to see. It wasn't that I was that good defensively. It was a team thing. Tracy did a great job on him as well. We were just ready to go." Nowitzki didn't go to the low post regularly against the Rockets on Saturday and said he will make adjustments. The Rockets already expect so much and hardly declared they found the cure-all in Bowen. "Ryan is going to try his hardest, and we also know that Nowitzki missed some shots he normally would make, too," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "We are not going to pound our chest like we have some answer for this guy. We have no answers. We are just trying our hardest." Power at the 4 spot With Juwan Howard out for the season because of a viral infection in his heart, the Rockets entered the first round knowing their biggest question was at power forward and trying to contain Nowitzki. Their game plan will likely be tinkered with throughout the seven-game series, with Scott Padgett and Weatherspoon occasionally giving Nowitzki different looks. But the primary responsibility will remain with Bowen and McGrady. Bowen deflected any compliments about his outing by saying Nowitzki had an off-night and credited his teammates for helping. The rest of the players in the Rockets' locker room, however, were more than willing to send praise his way. Little big man They all understand the impact the typically reserved forward could have in this series. "Ryan is huge for us," guard Mike James said. "I think he's going to be key for us throughout these playoffs, because he plays so hard and he does a lot of things that don't get in the stat books. I just think that if he continues to play that well, he's going to definitely be key for us." megan.manfull@chron.com
There were so many good, positive quotes in that last article. I especially like the one from Mike James. It's been said before, but this team really does seem close and like a real TEAM as opossed to just a bunch of guys getting paid to play who have a tiny bit of chemistry.
