Gortat and Howard against Boston's bullies. Why not?
by Mikeyho on Sep 22, 2010 1:22 AM EDT
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PrintI was fortunate to be in my hometown of beautiful Orlando to see four home games. I payed $100 to sit center court about mid way back of a sold out game. I almost payed $350 to sit directly behind the Magic bench with free dinner and what not. I should have paid $350 and here's why.
The Magic got dominated. Through three quarters they couldn't put up an open shot. I was closer to sleeping than I was cheering.
The Orlando Magic, where obvious happens. Stan puts in Gortat and Howard finally at the start of the fourth. Now Orlando can compete with the fat and muscle Boston throws at them. We erase a huge deficit. Rashard wins the game with 1 second left and Rasheed Wallace air balls a three. That didn't feel good. It felt freaking amazing.
That was the best game I've been to since maybe 1995ish when the Magic went crazy to win in overtime against the Charlotte Hornets. I was 10 or something years old.
I said that to say this. What happened? Why did we get jerked around in the playoffs and pretend we never thought of Gortat and Howard together? Gortat is good, and if we could use him to play bully ball he would be so much more valuable to this team. Earn his salary kinda valuable.
Ben Q? Anyone? Why isn't this seen. Was that fourth quarter a fluke?
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Flukish in nature.
The Garnett that showed up in the playoffs wouldn’t have let Lewis drive past him for the game-winning layup.
I write for Magic Basketball and have a Twitter account.
IDK, Mikeyho
I don’t know as Gortat was the sole factor. I think the win had more factors than that.
JJ played the entire 4Q. So did JWill.
ORL had shot 13% on 3s thru the 3Q.
And then shot 80% on 3s in the 4Q.
ORL had only 4 assists thru the 3Q.
4 more assists came in the 4Q.
etc.
Part of the issue was Boston just fell apart. In the playoffs, they didn’t consistently collapse like that.
Please don't simply ignore the stats when making your case, 'cause "...your eyes lie to you sometimes..."
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1. A lot of this makes sense to me. You say J.J. played well. I wonder how played earlier in the game.
2. They might have shot 13% because they couldn’t get an open shot.
3. How did they shoot 80% in the 4th quarter with Gortat in? Were they just knocking down contested shots or, if they were open, how did this happen?
4. No ball movement makes sense. I wonder how they’re assists were in the playoffs.
5. I understand Boston was known for collapsing last regular season but it didn’t happen every game. They could have just happened to collapse and Gortat being in had no effect.
Thanks for reply. I think I’m gonna re-watch the game to take a look at your points.
One reason
Gortat is an offensive zero, and against Boston in the playoffs, our biggest problem was scoring.
It seemed Dwight being well guarded by some big dudes was the primary reason our offense didn’t work well. We sure didn’t have problems with Gortat in as noted by magicfaninTN above.
Thus the fluke might still apply and your point be valid. That’s why I’m asking the question I suppose.
I don't agree
Dwight was his usual self against the Celtics, even against Perkins, who guards him better than anyone in the NBA (and only, for whatever reason, played 3 and a half minutes in the 4th in the game you mention).
The problem was our perimeter scoring – Lewis and Barnes had shocking series’, whilst Nelson and Carter were inconsistent.
by eltharion_doa on Sep 24, 2010 1:04 AM EDT up reply actions
I put up a game log in a new post of the January Boston game. You can see for yourself what I’m talking about or watch the actual game. Gortat made a huge difference teamed with Howard on defense and it was evident nearly every play. Boards and good defense due to the added size was a game changer….
At least for that game.
My conclusion. I would like to see more of it against big teams to see if it could work.
Orlando won 59 regular season games.
In one of them Gortat/Howard were effective together. In the rest the 4-out-1-in game was more effective. I doubt Orlando wins 59 with Lewis at the three and Gortat at the 4.
"We have a great bunch of outside shooters. Unfortunately, all our games are played indoors." - Weldon Drew
I'll tell ya about the Magic It'll free your soul but it's like trying to tell a stranger 'bout rock n roll
by NC Magic Fan on Sep 25, 2010 8:17 AM EDT up reply actions
There are two "big teams" in the entire league, and we have not typically had trouble winning those games.
Those teams are the Lakers and Boston. Obviously we did not beat them in the ECF this past season, but when we used Gortat + Howard in that series, it was rarely ever effective. Gortat was not at the top of his game. Neither were Rashard or Vince, and everyone else was inconsistent/nonexistent. If we had just one more player from the entire team simply not play badly, that series would have been an entirely different story.
What does that have to do with anything?
I’m talking about Orlando’s offense struggling with Gortat at PF, not their defense. I don’t object to seeing it more often, but thinking it would have helped against the Celtics in the playoffs is a stretch given Gortat’s lack of offensive ability when the problem was scoring against the Celtics D.
by eltharion_doa on Sep 26, 2010 2:41 AM EDT up reply actions
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