Dwight Howard stats vs. Celtics (Last Year's Playoffs)

[StartOrien]

Since the trade I've heard a lot of talk about Perk against Dwight Howard last year. Out of curiosity, I checked out the numbers from last season's playoffs.


Dwight Howard Stats:

Playoffs over 6 games: 21.8 ppg, 10.8 rbpg, 53 fg %, 40.15 min.
09/10 season: 18.3 ppg, 13.2 rbpg, 62 fg%, 34.7 min.

The most interesting part of the research was being reminded how little Perk actually played - 23 mpg.

Take those numbers for what they are, I was just interested in reviewing them and thought I'd share the results here.

[Rondo9dunx]

Since the trade I've heard a lot of talk about Perk against Dwight Howard last year. Out of curiosity, I checked out the numbers from last season's playoffs.


Dwight Howard Stats:

Playoffs over 6 games: 21.8 ppg, 10.8 rbpg, 53 fg %, 40.15 min.
09/10 season: 18.3 ppg, 13.2 rbpg, 62 fg%, 34.7 min.

The most interesting part of the research was being reminded how little Perk actually played - 23 mpg.

Take those numbers for what they are, I was just interested in reviewing them and thought I'd share the results here.

Yea, perk really kept him in check, didnt he?

[CelticG1]

IMO having Perkins guard Howard was more of a luxury than a necessity.

It was great throwing him on Howard and knowing that Howard would have to work a little more for his points and Perk would always get up for those games.

When Perk would go out with 2 fouls I was never worried that all of a sudden Howard was going to take over the game or anything as he is not that type of player. I thought Rasheed and Baby did just as well as Perk for the most part during that series.

I also think the main thing for us with any star player is our team defense and with Howard it is throwing multiple big bodies on him and wearing him down.

[Celtics4ever]

Yep, Perk contained him but didn't stop him.  It's a myth that he stopped him.  But you know what Russ didn't stop Wilt either and only contained him.   Sometimes it's enough to win but fan's memories are always better than the facts.

[BballTim]

Since the trade I've heard a lot of talk about Perk against Dwight Howard last year. Out of curiosity, I checked out the numbers from last season's playoffs.


Dwight Howard Stats:

Playoffs over 6 games: 21.8 ppg, 10.8 rbpg, 53 fg %, 40.15 min.
09/10 season: 18.3 ppg, 13.2 rbpg, 62 fg%, 34.7 min.

The most interesting part of the research was being reminded how little Perk actually played - 23 mpg.

Take those numbers for what they are, I was just interested in reviewing them and thought I'd share the results here.

Yea, perk really kept him in check, didnt he?

  First of all, don't be surprised if Howard scored more points with Perk on the bench than Perk in the game. Secondly, you're somewhat missing the point. Most teams have to help their center defend Dwight, so he's kind of comparing Perk on Dwight vs another center plus a help defender on Dwight. Other important numbers are 3 point shooting (.338, down from .375) and fg% (.430, down from .470 or so). This is at least in part a result of our not having to double Dwight, so their other shooters get fewer open shots.

[BballTim]

Yep, Perk contained him but didn't stop him.  It's a myth that he stopped him.  But you know what Russ didn't stop Wilt either and only contained him.   Sometimes it's enough to win but fan's memories are always better than the facts.

  I don't want to try and dig up the article again, but there was an espn article that showed Dwight's points per posession was down about 25% with Perk on him compared to the average center. It's no myth.

[Chris]

Stats can be used to show just about whatever you want, if you present them correctly.  Anyone who watched that series (or any other game with Perk defending Howard) could see that Perk (and Sheed and Davis for that matter) did a tremendous job of defending Howard.  Most teams need to send double teams at him to slow him down, but the C's were able to keep him from exploding with single coverage.  That is a tribute to their big men.

[Fafnir]

Since the trade I've heard a lot of talk about Perk against Dwight Howard last year. Out of curiosity, I checked out the numbers from last season's playoffs.


Dwight Howard Stats:

Playoffs over 6 games: 21.8 ppg, 10.8 rbpg, 53 fg %, 40.15 min.
09/10 season: 18.3 ppg, 13.2 rbpg, 62 fg%, 34.7 min.

The most interesting part of the research was being reminded how little Perk actually played - 23 mpg.

Take those numbers for what they are, I was just interested in reviewing them and thought I'd share the results here.

Yea, perk really kept him in check, didnt he?

  First of all, don't be surprised if Howard scored more points with Perk on the bench than Perk in the game. Secondly, you're somewhat missing the point. Most teams have to help their center defend Dwight, so he's kind of comparing Perk on Dwight vs another center plus a help defender on Dwight. Other important numbers are 3 point shooting (.338, down from .375) and fg% (.430, down from .470 or so). This is at least in part a result of our not having to double Dwight, so their other shooters get fewer open shots.

Based on popcorn game machine it looks like Dwight scored plenty on Perkins, Sheed, and Davis.

But he also had a lot of turnovers and shot a full 10% less than his season average. That's pretty good considering that we didn't double much at all that series.

[IrishGreen]

Any idea what his ft% was in that series?

[Megatron]

Dwights going to have to score 100 if he wants to beat the Celtics.

[Fafnir]

Yep, Perk contained him but didn't stop him.  It's a myth that he stopped him.  But you know what Russ didn't stop Wilt either and only contained him.   Sometimes it's enough to win but fan's memories are always better than the facts.

  I don't want to try and dig up the article again, but there was an espn article that showed Dwight's points per posession was down about 25% with Perk on him compared to the average center. It's no myth.

Which is pretty consistent with the stats that the OP cited. Dwight's TS% for the series was .584 compared to .630 in the regular season. His turnover rate was also slightly up.

[Fafnir]

Any idea what his ft% was in that series?

54.93% and he took 71 free throws, clocking in at 11.8 per game. Which is actually right around his per 36 average for the year.

So the C's didn't even have to foul Howard at a higher rate than other teams.

[BballTim]

Since the trade I've heard a lot of talk about Perk against Dwight Howard last year. Out of curiosity, I checked out the numbers from last season's playoffs.


Dwight Howard Stats:

Playoffs over 6 games: 21.8 ppg, 10.8 rbpg, 53 fg %, 40.15 min.
09/10 season: 18.3 ppg, 13.2 rbpg, 62 fg%, 34.7 min.

The most interesting part of the research was being reminded how little Perk actually played - 23 mpg.

Take those numbers for what they are, I was just interested in reviewing them and thought I'd share the results here.

Yea, perk really kept him in check, didnt he?

  First of all, don't be surprised if Howard scored more points with Perk on the bench than Perk in the game. Secondly, you're somewhat missing the point. Most teams have to help their center defend Dwight, so he's kind of comparing Perk on Dwight vs another center plus a help defender on Dwight. Other important numbers are 3 point shooting (.338, down from .375) and fg% (.430, down from .470 or so). This is at least in part a result of our not having to double Dwight, so their other shooters get fewer open shots.

Based on popcorn game machine it looks like Dwight scored plenty on Perkins, Sheed, and Davis.

But he also had a lot of turnovers and shot a full 10% less than his season average. That's pretty good considering that we didn't double much at all that series.

  Is there a way to tell how he did against individual players on popcornmachine? I don't use the website that much. If Howard and Perk's stints don't match up on start and end times can you really tell who he scored against?

[Fafnir]

Since the trade I've heard a lot of talk about Perk against Dwight Howard last year. Out of curiosity, I checked out the numbers from last season's playoffs.


Dwight Howard Stats:

Playoffs over 6 games: 21.8 ppg, 10.8 rbpg, 53 fg %, 40.15 min.
09/10 season: 18.3 ppg, 13.2 rbpg, 62 fg%, 34.7 min.

The most interesting part of the research was being reminded how little Perk actually played - 23 mpg.

Take those numbers for what they are, I was just interested in reviewing them and thought I'd share the results here.

Yea, perk really kept him in check, didnt he?

  First of all, don't be surprised if Howard scored more points with Perk on the bench than Perk in the game. Secondly, you're somewhat missing the point. Most teams have to help their center defend Dwight, so he's kind of comparing Perk on Dwight vs another center plus a help defender on Dwight. Other important numbers are 3 point shooting (.338, down from .375) and fg% (.430, down from .470 or so). This is at least in part a result of our not having to double Dwight, so their other shooters get fewer open shots.

Based on popcorn game machine it looks like Dwight scored plenty on Perkins, Sheed, and Davis.

But he also had a lot of turnovers and shot a full 10% less than his season average. That's pretty good considering that we didn't double much at all that series.

  Is there a way to tell how he did against individual players on popcornmachine? I don't use the website that much. If Howard and Perk's stints don't match up on start and end times can you really tell who he scored against?

No you can't be exact with it, but I focused on the stints at the start of 1st, 3rd and the end of the game. Those matched up pretty well with Perkins play time. (I'd forgotten about the mess of game 5...)

Dwight was scoring at a decent rate, though at a less efficiency.

[BballTim]

Yep, Perk contained him but didn't stop him.  It's a myth that he stopped him.  But you know what Russ didn't stop Wilt either and only contained him.   Sometimes it's enough to win but fan's memories are always better than the facts.

  I don't want to try and dig up the article again, but there was an espn article that showed Dwight's points per posession was down about 25% with Perk on him compared to the average center. It's no myth.

Which is pretty consistent with the stats that the OP cited. Dwight's TS% for the series was .584 compared to .630 in the regular season. His turnover rate was also slightly up.

  My bad. It was about 30% less than the average center, or about 25% less than Dwight's average against our current group of bigs.

  http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/nba/columns/story?columnist=lundblad_jeremy&id=6156817