Or whenever they bring up the Rockets in a positive light, she cringes, moans and groans, and tries to interject something negative. I mean I know there are homers on ESPN but damn...........
Glad this thread was bumped. If Rox see Thunder or Clips in the playoffs, Omer HAS to play more. He's a tougher player. Not a better player...but a tougher player and his help defense, sucking up the rebounds, and just controlling the paint was a HUGE factor to keep Durant and their other players from having an escort to the basket.
Omer played well. Super clutch on the line. Great defense. You wonder if the results would be the same if it were Dwight instead of Omer. I mean, there were times where I thought to myself "Oh man, Dwight would have just caught that and slammed it instead of being forced to shoot FTs". Or, "Dwight probably could have snagged/blocked that". But yeah, both dudes are really good. The level of play coming from the 5 isn't something we should be too worried about imo.
This! It's not about the better player, it's about the effort and continuing to fight when things aren't going your way. A lot of times when things aren't going his way, Dwight does a lot of whining then he picks and chooses when he wants to hustle which is frustrating.
Howard would be a lot better defensively if he stayed in position more and didn't try to block every shot. Hakeem would have gotten at least a block more per game if he played like Howard, but he was much more effective staying at home.
I give credit to Omer for being tough out there and not expecting the "superstar" calls. He was a whiner off the court (when he wanted to be traded) but he rarely whines we he is on the court unlike Dwight.
Skip is the king of the Trolls, especially when it comes to Dwight. Dwight took a crap team to finals. Kevin Love can't get a team in the playoffs and I'm sure he would jerk off to Love. Asik is a good center but you have to be blind to think he is better than Dwight. What big game situations has Asik been in? Dwight an Eastern conference champ, how is it they forget that? What's the difference between a dead snake on the road and a dead ESPN reporter. The snake has skid marks in front of it.
ESPN does almost all of their basketball shows exclusively from their flagship LA studios. the east coast bias is no longer.
Yeah, Howard shrank all the way to an Eastern Conference championship. The great Kevin Durant has the same number of conference championships and the same number of NBA Finals wins as the lowly Dwight Howard. Somebody needs to tell Bayless to shut up. The guy is irrelevant.
Asik is gaining more confidence receiving the ball. I saw a couple of nifty pnrs with Harden. Whereas last year, he would always fumble the pass, now he's able to receive it and lay it up or dunk it in one motion. His workouts with the Dream are really showing.
On some of the plays near the ring Asik seems to slow down, which is of great benefit. Those pump fakes to watch players fly by were real nice. I forgot how much I fell in love with him last season for putting his hard hat on and going to work each and every game doing the nitty gritty and none of the 'glamorous' things which receive praise. Dwight Howard is the better player. There's no ifs ands or buts about that. But against OKC I am more confident strutting out Omer. He was hesitant to go out to their bigs on the perimeter and daring them to shoot - instead inclined to stay home looking to secure the rebound. They made a couple so he adapted and started closing out on them. His awareness this game was great. He doesn't demand the ball down low and is content running and setting infinite screens each possession. After pushing it in the break, the Rockets are (most of the time) most dangerous with constant movement instead of feeding the post and standing around - especially when the opposing team has brick walls for a C. I hope every single member of the team is showing Asik some love after tonight's game. They should be letting him know at every opportunity it doesn't matter if he sits on the bench for the opening tip - he is just as integral to this team as any member of the starting 5 - considering the propensity for officials to ref Dwight the way they do.
Rockets's playoff journey lies on dwight being mentally strong enough to realize that he is not good post player.
Howard is a good post player, he isn't a great one. He and the team need to recognize when he is being beaten by his defender and score in other ways.
I have always said that Asik is as elite as Howard on defense and rebounding. The difference is on offense. Howard's athleticism and ability to finish around the basket is just light years ahead of Asik.
