Can't hang this loss on Howard, but start pointing at everyone else
ORLANDO -- This one wasn't Dwight Howard's fault. Don't think that by coming here, reading the guy who all but blamed Orlando's loss in Game 1 on Howard, you're going to read the same thing. Not me. Not today. Not this game.
Besides, the blame game is so harsh, so cruel. Do we really need to blame somebody every time a team loses? Do we?
Yeah, you're right. We do.
|
|
| Rashard Lewis has been invisible so far for the Magic, scoring a total of 11 points in two games. (Getty Images) |
Truth is, since I'm in the mood to point fingers at Orlando, I'm going to need to pop off one of my shoes and get some toes involved before I run out of people to blame for Orlando's 95-92 loss Tuesday night to Boston.
But I'm not blaming Dwight Howard, because he was terrific. He had 30 points on just 13 shots from the floor. He made 12 of 17 free throws. He grabbed eight rebounds, and that number is skewed -- not in his favor -- by the fact that he was fouled on at least three offensive rebounds. He should have had a double-double, but Boston sent him to the line instead of giving him an offensive rebound under the basket. And Howard made the Celtics pay by shooting 70.1 percent from the line.
Van Gundy blamed Howard, but that's Stan. He's feeling defensive, and rightly so, after seeing his second-seeded team drop both games at home to the fourth-seeded Celtics. This two-game result simply couldn't happen, yet it did, and it happened under Van Gundy's watch. And so he sat down behind the microphone after the game and, when asked to talk about Howard's play, he very nicely threw Howard under the bus.
"I thought Dwight was really good," Van Gundy said, then proceeded to explain that Howard wasn't very good at all. "What we've got to do in Game 3 is put together his rebounding and blocked shots from Game 1 (Howard had 12 boards and five blocks Sunday) with his offense from Game 2. Offensively he was really good tonight, but I thought he wasn't as much a presence defensively. We've got to get both those ends put together for Game 3."
But otherwise, as Van Gundy said, he thought Dwight was really good.
Jeez.
Now then, let me address the Celtics for a minute. They deserve some credit, of course. They didn't win a second consecutive game on the road without doing a lot of this on their own. Specifically, Paul Pierce was the best player on the floor for the second straight game -- 28 points, five rebounds, five assists -- and Rajon Rondo emerged from a quiet Game 1 to put together a loud 25 points, eight assists and five rebounds.
But Pierce and Rondo weren't simply Boston's brightest stars in Game 2. They were Boston's only stars. Kevin Garnett needed 16 shots to score just 10 points. Ray Allen scored four points in 39 minutes, one of the worst games of a career that has seen him play more than 1,100 games in the regular season and playoffs combined. Kendrick Perkins fouled out in 15 minutes. His backups, Rasheed Wallace and Glen Davis, were non-factors. Tony Allen and Michael Finley scored a combined four points in 20 minutes. And nobody else on the Celtics played. Which leads me to back to my assertion that Pierce and Rondo were the only bright spots for Boston.
|
| Related links |
|
Game 2 recap: Celtics 95, Magic 92 Series matchup: Celtics 2, Magic 0 |
And still Boston won. At Orlando. On a night Dwight Howard had 30 points.
Which does tell me, and should tell you, that Orlando had more goats than a petting zoo.
The biggest stinker was Rashard Lewis. He played 43 minutes in Game 1 but managed just six points on 2-for-10 shooting. In Game 2 he had five points. In the best of times Lewis is a limited player, a one-dimensional shooter, but this was Lewis at his worst. He managed just six shots from the floor in 41 minutes, and he took no free throws. Van Gundy removed the verbal knife from Howard's back and stuck it into his own arm, though, blaming himself for Lewis' shoddy showing.
"I don't think Rashard has played badly," Van Gundy said. "It's incumbent on me to get him involved. It's not that he's playing badly."
Carter had 16 points, but after Van Gundy and several players made it clear before Game 2 that the Magic hadn't passed the ball enough in Game 1, Carter dominated the ball again in Game 2. He took 15 shots in 26 minutes, handed out a single assist, and scored 16 points that look good only to people who don't know what they're looking at. Worst of all, Carter missed two free throws with 31.9 seconds left and the Magic trailing 95-92. Carter hit his first five free throws of the game, and was shooting 84 percent from the line when he missed those two. Brutal.
Redick deserves plenty of blame for Game 2, too, even if it was the most productive playoff game of his career. He set postseason career highs with 16 points and five rebounds, and his four assists was a 2010 postseason high and his second-best total in 29 career playoff games. Yet Redick, the former Duke star, made the biggest bonehead play of the game when he grabbed a defensive rebound with eight seconds left -- and didn't call timeout. He dribbled aimlessly for almost four seconds, getting no closer than 75 feet to the basket, before someone bailed him out and called timeout.
That left Orlando with just 3.5 seconds left and the ball in the halfcourt -- and from there, the best the Magic could muster was a 35-footer by Jameer Nelson that went 34 feet.
A timeout was the plan for Redick. Van Gundy said so. You expected Van Gundy to lie? He'd already decided that Dwight Howard could have done more than put up 30 points and eight rebounds (but no blocks). Of course he wasn't going to lie for J.J. Freaking Redick.
"That was all covered in the timeout," Van Gundy said, referring to the timeout before Boston's final possession. "Of course. We were playing for a stop and an immediate timeout."
Van Gundy was told that Celtics coach Doc Rivers had given Redick an out, saying Redick hesitated and then started to dribble because he expected Boston's Tony Allen to foul him. Van Gundy was having none of it.
"No," Van Gundy said. "We said in the thing, 'We're calling timeout.' He didn't call timeout. I'm not going to jump his ass, but I'm also not going to make an excuse. We didn't make the right play at the end."
Or at any other time, really. On a night that Boston had two starters foul out, had two other starters play poorly, and had little contribution from its bench, the Celtics still won. On the road. Against a higher-seeded team.
Boston won this game, yes. But Orlando, not counting Dwight Howard, lost it.
