To start the fourth quarter, Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic turned the basketball over on two straight possessions.  Both of these turnovers were due to three second violations on Dwight Howard.  While the turnovers are chalked up to Howard, these three second violations were more the fault of his teammates than his fault.  Both times Howard had deep post position and his teammates didn’t pass him the basketball:

The Magic’s first possession is a set play to try and get Dwight Howard the ball in the post after a dive.  Howard sets a ball screen and then dives to the paint, looking to get strong post position.  This happens as Arenas kicks the basketball out to Ryan Anderson.  Howard is in the paint right under the basket, but Anderson doesn’t even look at Howard to make the entry pass.  The ball finally gets entered into Howard, but it is one pass too late, and by the time he gets the ball in the paint the whistle blows for three seconds.

Once again, Dwight Howard establishes strong post position on the move as Gilbert Arenas penetrates.  Arenas picks up his dribble, and a simple bounce pass to Howard could result in an easy basket.  Instead, Arenas kicks it out to the top of the key looking for the three point shot.  Anderson gets the shot off, but the whistle blows for three seconds once again.

It is so hard for bigs to establish fantastic position in the paint because they need to rely on their teammates to get the basketball to them in a timely matter.  This is why you see players start outside of the paint most of the time.  However, when you have Dwight Howard on his way to 40+ points and he dives into the paint, establishing strong position, you need to get him the basketball.  In both of these cases, his teammates don’t even look to get Howard the basketball, this leaves Howard in no-mans land, standing in the paint waiting for the basketball to come.  The result is two turnovers that should have been baskets.