The Threat Of Dwight Howard
What makes the Magic so dangerous late in games is that they have so many options. You have Vince Carter, Dwight Howard, and Rashard Lewis for starters. Late in overtime against the Heat, all three played a pretty important role in taking a 3 point lead and making it 6.
The Magic run Vince Carter off of a screen set by Dwight Howard. Dwight is going to roll straight to the rim after setting the screen.
As Dwight starts his roll, Carter returns to the side he was on before he set the screen. Michael Beasley ends up sinking in the middle, to help defend Dwight Howard on the roll.
As Vince Carter rises up to pass, Michael Beasley is actually bodied up with Howard, and Jermaine O’Neal is stuck in no man’s land at the top of the key. That means that there is no defender near Rashard Lewis.
As Rashard Lewis rises up to shoot the three, you are left to wonder who made the mistake here. Was Michael Beasley’s help designed, or did he do it on his own? I tend to believe that he did it on his own because if this was schemed there would be at least some rotation to Lewis, but there is none.
As I said at the start of the post, this is what makes the Magic so dangerous. You have a very, very, very good big man in Dwight Howard that teams need to pay attention to. Then you have 4 guys who can knock down an outside shot, and that forces the defense to make a decision. Who are they going to leave to double Dwight. Here, they picked Rashard Lewis and ended up paying for it.
This is a fourth-grade play that every team with shooters runs. The Cavs do this every two minutes with any of the combinations: Lebron/Mo Williams handling, Varejao/Hickson setting the pick and rolling, and Parker/West/Gibson/Mo/Jawad spotting up in the corner.
The Magic have a great lineup for it as well. On this exact play, if the closest Heat guard helps on Lewis, he can just swing it to whoever that other Magic guard is (Nelson/Williams/Reddick?). They can all hit it — that’s what the team was built for.
Really, all you need is a big who can score on the move to make that pick & roll a legitimate threat. Dwight is obviously great at this — as are Varejao, Amare, Josh Smith, etc.
Great patient read by Vince, too. I was convinced he was going to fire up an off-balance fadeaway.
Hey t, slow ur role. U think Varejao should be in the same sentence as Howard, Amare and Josh Smith. U will be really disappointed come playoff time.
Hey ufr sports, slow your roll. Varejao is in the same sentence as Howard, Amar’e, and Smith if you’re talking about bigs who can score at the rim off a pick and roll (which is what t said). Now if you’re talking about something else, like stars on their respective teams, then Varejao doesn’t belong. And likewise if you’re talking about DPOY candidates, Amar’e doesn’t belong. If you watch a Cavs game, you’ll see how many easy buckets Varejao gets off the pick and roll with LeBron.
Varejao is the best flopper in the NBA. The way he snaps his head back when nobody actually hits him, and his hair flies backward….he gets a lot of people into a lot of foul trouble that way. I think it’s his greatest strength. It’s also dishonest.
So yeah, put Varejao in the same sentence as Howard, but only one of them has a practiced move that constitutes cheating. Say what you want, but if you try to create a foul that didn’t happen, you have cheated. And V is great at cheating.
I think varejao has improved over the years, just that he’s not a double double guy every game. He does have quite a hustle game in him .
Howard is an all-star, a different league compared to that furball head guy. There isnt suppose to be a comparison between this two players cause they play differently.
nice move….
good communication between players….that was the key to the success of this play.
Even if Beasley made a mistake, it looks like he’s covering for JO. If JO was defending Howard, he wouldve been right next to Beasley. Looks like Dwight had an open dunk if Beasley doesn’t step in. What do you guys think?
This is a beautiful play….The Magic play beautiful basketball when they are spreading the floor and knocking down shots. Their personnel which includes an athletic mutant in Howard combined with their athletic wings that can both knock down outside shots, but who also can put the ball on the deck and attack the rim make them difficult to stop because they force the defense to make a difficult decsion on each player.
I love this set as it is a simple high p&r with everyone lifted above the three-point line. Defensively, you need to account for Carter’s potential ability to turn the corner in the p&r which forces you to defend the p&r with a soft show/under. You can’t blitz the pick against them because it forces a defender covering a shooter in the wing to help for a count or two against Howard rolling to the front of the rim until Howard’s defender gets back into the paint against Howard. The help defender who sags into the paint must do his best to close out to the perimeter against a very good shooter…If you are late to close you obviously give up an uncontested three-point attempt or a poor close out will enable Orlando’s wings to give a quick shot fake or immediately rip through on the catch which enable them a pull up jumper or a drive to the rim. EVEN on that example as the wing player drives to the rim it’s so hard to make all the necessary defensive rotations….If Lewis drives to the rim and O’Neal helps all he has to do is make a quick pass to Howard for a dunk as too many weakside helping guards don’t rotate quick enough in those situations (they don’t get in front of the big to close off the passing lanes or deflect the pass)
Watching Orlando last year in the playoffs against Cleveland was great as they were able to get a lot of penetration where they drove basebline -made the pass to the corner- and then made the extra pass to the wing time and time again for wide open three-pointers….even if the defense rotated to stop the three-point attempt all Turk had to do was make the catch and rip it through to the rim, get to line or throw the lob to Howard if help came on his drive…If Orlando throws it into the post the defense must decide if they are going to double on the catch or first dribble, where the double is coming from and the proper rotations..if you don’t double Howard he will abuse your post players or at least, get them in foul trouble…if you double Orlando will cut someone through the lane which the defense must account for …if it doesn’t then ORL would get plenty of lay-ups…Once the defense accounts for the cutter it opens up the opportunity for Howard to make the quick pass to an open wing for an open three or drive…..Orlando is tough to beat as they run continuous p&r and tons of wing p&r w/weakside duckins for Howard and Horns action….Orlando will be tough again this June
I agree with the commenter who said this was J. Oneal’s fault. Dwight is rolling and O’neal is clearly level with Howard in the 2nd picture. He either should have continued with Dwight all the way or rotated to cover Beasley’s man in the corner. Had O’neal continued w/ D.Howard he wouldn’t be in that no man’s land position. Without video we can’t really tell though.
If I was a Heat fan, I would prefer Beasley stay with Rashard and let Jermain play Dwight himself. I know this sounds foolish but Dwight was a step slower that night. I was at the game and Jermain was doing an incredible job covering Dwight all night. I’d rather go with something that has worked all night than leave an elite level shooter open.