After dethroning King James, and exposing the Orlando Magic, the Boston Celtics have been the flashlight revealing all the warts of the Eastern Conference’s upper class.
Their 94-71 Game 3 destruction of Orlando was particularly illuminating. Here’s what the Boston mythbusters have discovered.
Myth: Dwight Howard is an elite defensive center.
Truth: The Celtics suffered minimal defensive pressure from Howard. As a helper, he was frozen in his tracks on a pair of Rajon Rondo floaters that he was too timid to close out on. He also took a poor angle when showing and recovering on a screen leading to a Kendrick Perkins layup.
At times he was asked to defend Glen Davis or Kevin Garnett, where their range pulled Howard away from providing help defense at the rim. He would get stuck in no-man’s land and leave Garnett or Davis open for uncontested 20-foot jumpers. Even when guarding Kendrick Perkins, he was frequently late or non-existent in his rotations.
He also isn’t able to properly defend screens at the three-point line. On one particular play, he was so far off a Ray Allen screen that he realized too late that ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Erick Blasco
Magic-Celtics Game 4: Celtics Proving to Be Playoff Mythbusters
May 23rd, 2010 by Erick Blasco Leave a reply »
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