Magic's Man of Steel not strong enough in Finals
Berger: Kobe has nothing left to prove
ORLANDO, Fla. -- This can't happen to Orlando again, but only Dwight Howard can stop it. None of his teammates, not Hedo Turkoglu or Rashard Lewis or anyone else, can do it for him. Magic general manager Otis Smith can't do it for him. Stan Van Gundy, the Magic's coach, clearly and completely and undisputedly can't do it for him.
But he'll have to do two things.
One, he'll have to stick around. Not as easy as it sounds. Shaquille O'Neal was 23 years old -- Howard's age -- when he led the Magic to the 1995 NBA Finals and saw his team get bounced in four games by Houston. O'Neal stuck around just one more year, then left for Los Angeles, where he won multiple NBA titles with the Lakers.
Two, Howard will have to get more. Not better. More.
More hungry. More skilled. More assertive. More of a leader.
More.
If Howard does those two things -- improves himself, and does it here in Orlando -- the Magic will be back. After the game, NBA Finals MVP Kobe Bryant of the Lakers was asked about Howard's future and cautioned, cynically, that "it's tough to get back" to the NBA Finals. But Howard is the best big man in the league, and without exception in the modern era of NBA basketball, the best big man in the league wins a title. Howard is only 23. If he does those two things, he'll get back here. And this won't happen again.
But this was terrible.
• Lakers 99, Magic 86 | Series: Lakers 4, Magic 1
Howard looked spineless. He played more than 39 minutes, and he finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Those aren't the numbers of the best big man in basketball in June. Those are the numbers of Andrew Bogut in November.
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| Dwight Howard doesn't have his best performance (11 points, 10 boards) in a must-win game . (Getty Images) |
Howard looked spineless, and his team was equally invertebrate. The Magic were outrebounded 47-36 in a win-or-done Game 5 of the NBA Finals. The Lakers attacked more all over the floor, which is why they attempted 12 more free throws than Orlando. That kind of statistical domination in effort categories can't happen to Orlando, but it did.
So did this: The Magic fell behind by double figures late in the second quarter, even after having the double tailwind of the home crowd and a 19-10 start, and barely were within single digits the rest of the game.
Those things inexplicably happened, and only Howard can give the Magic the backbone they'll need to keep them from happening again. Lord knows his happy-to-be-here coach can't do it. After his team was skunked up and down the floor for most of 48 minutes, Van Gundy said this:
"I thought our guys fought hard."
Thanks, Stan. Next time, try watching the game.
At least Howard saw what happened.
"We started great," Howard said, "but they made a run, and instead of being the team that played like we did all season, we kind of started to hold our heads down. And they went from there."
Going forward, it would help if Howard, the Magic's franchise player, showed more fire than he showed after the devastating loss of Game 4, when the Magic completely folded and Howard led the way by missing two game-clinching free throws with 11.1 seconds in regulation, and then two point-blank shots in overtime.
Afterward, Howard said he was fine. Unfazed. Not beating himself up over the misses or the loss or anything. He's a happy guy, Dwight Howard. And that's great for his mental health -- but it's not so great for his basketball team.
Check out the team that celebrated Sunday night on the Magic's floor. Kobe Bryant doesn't accept failure from himself or his teammates. When Lamar Odom starts goofing or Pau Gasol starts poofing, Kobe snarls in their face. People don't like him, including some of his teammates most likely, but Kobe's a winner. Four rings don't lie. Best player in the league? I'm saying it's LeBron James, but ... dadgum. Kobe wins. That's what LeBron will have to learn to do.
So he'll have to become more. Whereas Shaq was simply too large to be kept away from the rim, Howard was pushed away from the basket all series. Cleveland's weak big men, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao, couldn't do that in the Eastern Conference finals and the results were obvious. But the Lakers -- the hulking Bynum and even the lithe Gasol -- kept him away from his comfort zone, which is the dunk. Howard was fourth on the team in shots (43) in the NBA Finals, way behind team leaders Lewis (74), Turkoglu (61) and Rafer Alston (57), and over the course of five games he took just three shots more than Mickael Pietrus (40).
Can't happen.
Howard thinks his game has evolved, but it hasn't. Howard, a devout sort who had predicted the Magic would beat the Lakers before this series because of God, clearly doesn't embrace or even understand evolution. But he hasn't evolved offensively nearly enough. He now can flip up a running hook shot with modest success, and he can score with his left hand in the right circumstances, but it's not enough. Obviously. The NBA Finals don't lie. Howard's offensive game is not nearly diverse enough, even when surrounded by teammates who launch 3-point shots from every position on the floor, including two enormous frontcourt players in Lewis and Turkoglu.
Those things can only be improved with time, and Howard seems to get it. He lingered on the court Sunday night to watch the Lakers celebrate, and when he noticed Jameer Nelson standing nearby, Howard told him, "We had a great season, but next year we've got to be even hungrier to be champions."
Good answer. Howard needs to be starving this offseason. If he returns next season and again makes 59 percent from the foul line, his 2009 offseason will have been a failure. If he returns next season and again is unable to score consistently beyond dunking range, his offseason will have been a failure.
And if his offseason is a failure, his 2010 playoffs will end in failure too.
