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

[Rondo9dunx]

lol I certainly didnt miss the point. I was just pointing out that he in no way, shape or form was able to "shut d12 down" like some people say.

Besides how many rings does d12 have? We're clearly not the only team that could stop a team with him on it from winning.

If 20/10 is being "shut dont" then yes, perk was a shut-down defender when it came to dwight.

[Roy H.]

Dwight had some big games in that series, but Perk's defense set the tone in Game 1:  Howard had 13 points on 3-for-10 shooting, with 7 turnovers.  Shutting Howard down after Orlando had swept through the playoffs was very important psychologically.

Howard similarly struggled in Game 3: 7 points and 7 rebounds on 30% shooting.  This was effectively the back-breaker game, and again, Perk shut him down.

It's impossible to contain a superstar every game, but Perk did it in two out of the first three games in the series.  After that, the series was effectively over. 

[Fafnir]

Dwight had some big games in that series, but Perk's defense set the tone in Game 1:  Howard had 13 points on 3-for-10 shooting, with 7 turnovers.  Shutting Howard down after Orlando had swept through the playoffs was very important psychologically.

Howard similarly struggled in Game 3: 7 points and 7 rebounds on 30% shooting.  This was effectively the back-breaker game, and again, Perk shut him down.

It's impossible to contain a superstar every game, but Perk did it in two out of the first three games in the series.  After that, the series was effectively over.  

I think you have to credit Sheed for that as well. He stole the  ball from Dwight for several of those turnovers and at worst sent him to the free throw line rather than allow him to dunk if he forced him under the hoop.

Perkins/Sheed combined to really take Howard out of his game, especially in games 1/3.

[Rondo9dunx]

Dwight had some big games in that series, but Perk's defense set the tone in Game 1:  Howard had 13 points on 3-for-10 shooting, with 7 turnovers.  Shutting Howard down after Orlando had swept through the playoffs was very important psychologically.

Howard similarly struggled in Game 3: 7 points and 7 rebounds on 30% shooting.  This was effectively the back-breaker game, and again, Perk shut him down.

It's impossible to contain a superstar every game, but Perk did it in two out of the first three games in the series.  After that, the series was effectively over. 

eh, sometimes shots just dont fall for guys. you cant give perk all the credit imo, though he obviously gets a lot of it, i'm jus sayin. I mean I get that some games he was able to really slow d12 down, but d12 has had more good games than bad games against us. I still think Perk is being over-rated as well. If anything this just shows me that the rest of our team is good enough to beat the magic regardless of what d12 does

[BballTim]

Dwight had some big games in that series, but Perk's defense set the tone in Game 1:  Howard had 13 points on 3-for-10 shooting, with 7 turnovers.  Shutting Howard down after Orlando had swept through the playoffs was very important psychologically.

Howard similarly struggled in Game 3: 7 points and 7 rebounds on 30% shooting.  This was effectively the back-breaker game, and again, Perk shut him down.

It's impossible to contain a superstar every game, but Perk did it in two out of the first three games in the series.  After that, the series was effectively over. 

eh, sometimes shots just dont fall for guys. you cant give perk all the credit imo, though he obviously gets a lot of it, i'm jus sayin. I mean I get that some games he was able to really slow d12 down, but d12 has had more good games than bad games against us. I still think Perk is being over-rated as well. If anything this just shows me that the rest of our team is good enough to beat the magic regardless of what d12 does

  When I said that Perk holds Dwight to well below his normal scoring rate they're looking at all the games they played against each other since 07-08. It's not just "sometimes shots just don't fall".

[Roy H.]

Dwight had some big games in that series, but Perk's defense set the tone in Game 1:  Howard had 13 points on 3-for-10 shooting, with 7 turnovers.  Shutting Howard down after Orlando had swept through the playoffs was very important psychologically.

Howard similarly struggled in Game 3: 7 points and 7 rebounds on 30% shooting.  This was effectively the back-breaker game, and again, Perk shut him down.

It's impossible to contain a superstar every game, but Perk did it in two out of the first three games in the series.  After that, the series was effectively over. 

eh, sometimes shots just dont fall for guys. you cant give perk all the credit imo, though he obviously gets a lot of it, i'm jus sayin. I mean I get that some games he was able to really slow d12 down, but d12 has had more good games than bad games against us. I still think Perk is being over-rated as well. If anything this just shows me that the rest of our team is good enough to beat the magic regardless of what d12 does

The importance of guys like Perk (and Sheed) is that they can muscle Howard out of the paint and force him into trickier / longer shots.  You're right that everyone has bad shooting nights from time to time, but with lesser defensive centers, those bad nights don't matter because Howard can bully his way to the hoop for dunks and easy baskets.  Perk does a good job making Howard work for the majority of his points.

It's sort of how we play defense on Lebron.  We don't stop him, but we do play him physically and attempt to keep him out of the paint as much as possible.  Superstars will tend to go off for big stats, but the role of the Celtics defense has been to take those stars just enough out of their comfort zones to win.

[barefacedmonk]

eh, sometimes shots just dont fall for guys.

So, Posey's and the Captain's defensive effort in the playoffs during our championship run must have been a fluke...it just so happened that the opponent's shots weren't falling.

[StartOrien]

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.

At the same time, there is a decent amount to take out of those stats. For the most part, the Celtics held Dwight around his career averages, and it reminds us that Rasheed Wallace had a larger part to do w/ it than I think a lot of us remember.

I meant to include the link to the game log, but something that the per game averages don't show, and something that kind of supports the "Sometimes shots don't fall" - a theorem I don't subscribe to - is that Dwight was kinda all over the map with his games: 2 truly terrible games, and then 4 above average performances

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/howardw01/gamelog/2010/

[BballTim]

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.

At the same time, there is a decent amount to take out of those stats. For the most part, the Celtics held Dwight around his career averages, and it reminds us that Rasheed Wallace had a larger part to do w/ it than I think a lot of us remember.

  The real point isn't how they held Dwight compared to his career averages. Most teams send help defenders when Dwight gets the ball down low, so when he doesn't get a shot they swing the ball around for an open three. We don't have to double Dwight so we can keep them from getting those open threes without paying the price of Dwight going crazy. He does have some big games but is generally held in check.

[Rondo9dunx]

eh, sometimes shots just dont fall for guys.

So, Posey's and the Captain's defensive effort in the playoffs during our championship run must have been a fluke...it just so happened that the opponent's shots weren't falling.

jeeZ man take a chill pill and stop putting words in other peoples mouths, you do that all the time.

I was just saying that just everyone has bad games, and it's not always because the guy guarding him is so amazingly talented on defense. he still averaged what he always averages against us. But you all seem to want to ignore that and give none of the credit to bbd and sheed.

[Rondo9dunx]

And will you people stop saying we "never" double up on d12

[Rondo9dunx]

You're acting like i'm saying Perkins was a scrub for not literally shutting d12 down. d12 is the best center in the league, nobody can shut him down, most nights, regardless of who is covering he's gonna get 20/10 and thats just the way it is.

Shutting him down is not the cure-all for beating the magic, shutting down thier perimeter players is what gets you by the magic.

Perkins was awesome on defense, I know this, you know this,the world knows this. But we wasn't to defense what MJ was to offense or anything like that, d12 was able to muscle perkins plenty of times, just like perkins was able muscle d12 around. Stop giving him more credit than he deserves, there are 4 guys that are way more important to this team still left.

[Rondo9dunx]

meh forget it

[mgent]

First Perk was only guarding him half the time.  Second Dwight scored about his average which means Perk and Baby/Sheed guarded him as well as two guys at the same time.

[greg683x]

And will you people stop saying we "never" double up on d12

we dont.  unless we're caught in a mismatch