Game Recap 02/20: Boston Celtics @ Los Angeles Lakers
The big reason for the Lakers's big win was Dwight Howard, who simply dominated both ends of the floor! With the All Star Break, Howard was able to rest, recover from his injuries and with fresh legs, he was simply amazing! Defensively, he looked as quick and reactive as he has all season. He slid his feet and showed active hands. He would cut off dribble penetration, recover to his man and then slide with him before contesting a shot. He helped quickly when a teammate was over matched and challenged to either block or alter shots to force misses. He showed out on screens and still recovered back to the paint to rebound the ball. Boston was completely unable to do anything on pick and rolls or post ups mostly due to Howard's actions.
Besides that, I also liked Howard on offense. The team made a concerted effort to involve him on offense and he shot 10-13 FG in 30 minutes! He set hard screens and then dove into the gaps of the defense seeking out the action rather than standing and waiting for the ball to come to him. His combinations with Steve Nash were amazing! The Lakers had monster numbers on pick and rolls against an elite team on defending pick and rolls: 8-11 FG and 1.43 PPP on pick and roll ball handlers and 6-9 FG and 1.21 PPP on pick and roll roll man. However, there are two important things to say about this game: this was an emotional game due to Jerry Buss's death and so, the Lakers made a huge effort, plus they faced an old shorthanded team that was on a back to back game, after having played at Denver in the night before.
Game Article Preview: Dallas Mavericks @ New Orleans Hornets
Dallas had a nice 4-1 home span that ended in their win against Orlando last Wednesday. Offensively, Dallas has become a powerhouse especially at home. They play on a fast tempo and they are finally avoiding turnovers, one of their main offensive problems early on the season. The Mavericks committed just 9 turnovers against the Magic and they have now recorded 12-or-fewer turnovers in each of their last five games! Their ball movement is excellent with 25.9 assists per game over their last 10 games and Coach Carlisle has created some solid rotations. On their last game, ten different players scored points and the bench was able to score 54 points on their own! The main reason for their great offensive game against Orlando was their stellar ball movement with 32 assists for just 9 turnovers!
As expected, Dallas put a lot of pressure on Orlando, as they scored 51 points in the first 15 minutes of the game, but then they scored just 4 points in the following 9 minutes! Their in-game inconsistency has been a big problem for them and also their defense has struggled as well, as a jump shooting team like Orlando on a back to back spot was able to score 44 points in the paint and attempted 22 free throws as well! The Mavericks's 15 points win doesn't show what happened on the court, as Dallas struggled throughout most of the game and they were leading by just 94-90 with six minutes to go, just to have a 14-0 run deciding the game later on.
On the other hand, New Orleans is coming from a road loss at Cleveland, where the Hornets had a decent offensive game with 48.7% FG and 7-15 3pts, but they simply couldn't stop Kyrie Irving, who torched them with 13-22 FG, 35 points and 7 assists! Cleveland's offense had the edge in four key areas: isolations, pick and roll ball handlers, spot ups and transitions. This wasn't a surprise as the Hornets's defense generally struggles in these four areas. However, New Orleans's offense also played well, especially on pick and rolls, where Cleveland's defense is very poor. The bottom line of this game was that both offenses took very well advantage of their edges over the opposing defenses, but down the stretch, Kyrie Irving solved another game for his team.
Game Recap 02/20: Memphis Grizzlies @ New York Knicks
It was almost inevitable for the Raptors to lose their last game against Memphis. The Raptors had won their previous five games, but they hadn't shown any stellar play in both ends of the floor. Defensively, Toronto is really looking like a decent team, but offensively, they are using too much ISO ball, with no ball movement and a very stagnant offense. Down the stretch the ball simply don't move! Toronto doesn't have a powerful frontcourt unit and when you face a team like Memphis, who is a better defensive and rebounding team than the Raptors, Toronto would surely need to have a better offense than they had shown in the previous games. However, the Raptors had just 14 assists and in fact, they have just dished 12, 20 and 14 assists on their last three games! However, I must admit that this team has a lot of heart, as they kept fight despite being down in the score. They never gave up and they were able to tie the game at one time down the stretch.
Memphis had finally a subpar offensive game after five consecutive good offensive performances. They just couldn't score in post up plays with a pathetic 3-22 FG mark! Zach Randolph had a good game in the rebounding and free throw departments (18 rebounds + 9-14 FT), but he was awful on his shooting with 4-17 FG! That's a bad sign when your All Star PF shoots 4-17 FG in one game, but the truth is that the Grizzlies still won the game, in a good testament of how dangerous they will be for the future!
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