This is great news. Best believe if the heat continue to get punked in the paint they would try and sign him. He was the best big man left on the market and he's gone. Thanks Houston.
I don't know, you'd think Howard and Lopez would have been - along with the Lakers and Celtics - the best chance at eating up that small frontline. But they didn't, they both had their worst games of the season (albeit a very small sample size).
I haven't watched any Heat game since the opener, but are teams even going inside? Are they even getting the opportunity? The Magic have a good PG and a very good C and still couldn't do much.
They are holding their own on the boards too.
The Magic did force the Heat to take all outside shots. LeBron had no dunks for one of the first games in a long time. The Heat simply got really hot shooting from outside and their stars made a lot of long 2 pointers. The Magic could easily have beaten the Heat in that game if their own outside shots had fallen and the Heat's shots hadn't.
The Magic's defensive strategy played right into the heat's strengths.
They overpursued constantly, cheating off the guys on the weakside, so that with one or two quick passes, Jones, House, Arroyo and LBJ were wide open.
And SVG didn't adjust at all - nor (with Lewis shooting 0-7) did he try Ryan Anderson (12 pts on 5-8 shooting) until the heat were up 20 in the 3rd.
Give credit to the heat's defense - they single covered the offensively-improved dwight (it appears that a week with Hakeem did more for his game than years with Ewing), and smothered the perimeter VERY effectively.
I think it was similar to the Cavs win over the c's in that it was the home opener vs their same-state rival, and with the loss to the celtics, a much-needed statement game win.
