I love Ezeli.
He is playing so physical with Dwight Howard right now. Banging him early and hard in transition. Tough box outs on the defensive glass keeping him away from rebounds. Great overplay on a post up to deflect the entry pass away.
Heck, he even initiated the contact on offense and looked for a post up. Bang! Smacks into him at the elbow, pushes him down low, then makes Dwight fight for post position. They were never giving Ezeli the ball in the low block against Dwight but he went down there and he made Dwight work. Man, I'd love to see Sully do that when he is on the court. He is so bloody passive offensively. Just stands there gawking at the other players waiting for them to do so something.
Ezeli has set a couple of bone crunching screens on Nash and Morris too. Real hard screens. Terrific. I love this guy.
How many rookie big men out of the NCAA play with this type of physical toughness and defensive tenacity? This guy really is something.
Edit: Now Dwight is called for an offensive foul for shoving Ezeli out of the way with his off arm. Frustration foul. He doesn't like how hard Ezeli is going at him. Ezeli is a ROOKIE! Physical and mental toughness. This guy is a fighter. Now he deflects the post entry pass to Pau Gasol out of bounds. Brilliant. It's only the 6 minute mark in the first quarter. Now he alters and helps force a miss on a Kobe Bryant baseline driving layup. Terrific.