Howard Calls Out Coach

Shapecity · May 13, 2009

BOSTON – Dwight Howard(notes) waited for nearly an hour in the stunned silence of the losing locker room, thinking long and hard about the timing of calling out Stan Van Gundy’s failed policies. He has never been a young man of impulse, of speaking without the most careful of consideration. So yes, this made the measured and unemotional tone of his displeasure with Van Gundy devastating.

The Orlando Magic collapsed in the final minutes of Game 5, and maybe cost themselves a chance to reach the Eastern Conference finals. Howard is watching the ball go everywhere but where it ought to: Into the hands of the Magic’s franchise center, its superstar.

Enough, Howard said.

Give me the ball.

“You’ve got a dominant player,” Howard pleaded late Tuesday night. “Let him be dominant.”

He’s right. He needed to say it, and he needed to say it now. What’s the use this summer? What’s the use when this series is over? The final, frantic minutes were an indictment of these Magic, a stunning spiral of lobbed air balls and sprayed turnovers that let the flatlined Boston Celtics rise out of the rubble to steal a 92-88 Game 5 victory, and 3-2 control of this Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Magic appear fragile, scattered and unnerved. They lost on Big Baby Davis’ stunning jumper in Game 4, and blew a 14 point fourth-quarter lead in Game 5, and now the Magic stagger home for an elimination game Thursday night.

Privately, the Celtics believe that Orlando’s vulnerability late in games comes from a singular question that they’ve been unable to answer: Who is the go-to guy? Orlando missed eight straight shots to end the game, and that’s what angers Howard the most: Why isn’t that me?

“I have to get the ball,” Howard said. “I don’t think you are going to win a lot of games when your post player only gets 10 shots. It’s tough to get yourself going and get a lot of shots without a lot of touches. We have to get better with that.”

What Howard was trying to say was simple: Van Gundy has to get better with that. Howard had 12 points and 17 rebounds, just 10 shots on the night. In the fourth quarter, when it all slipped away, Howard had just two shots. He made them both, but it was far too little, and that’s become far too much of a pattern here.

The Magic led 77-63 with eight and a half minutes left and 88-75 with 5:39, and still they squandered another lead in these playoffs. They’ve made it a habit. This is a character flaw of these Magic, and that loss of composure and direction returns to the coach. Shaquille O’Neal(notes) declared Van Gundy the “Master of Panic,” for failures in past playoffs. Howard wouldn’t go that far, but he appears done biting his lip when it comes to his diminished role in the offense.

He will go along with his coach’s desire for him to be the immovable force on defense and on the boards, but no longer does it appear Howard will accept becoming an accidental tourist along the way to one more Magic meltdown. This was a disgraceful loss for Orlando, and it will linger as an indictment of the franchise.

Howard is so frustrated with the Magic’s reliance on 3-pointers, the indifference on getting him the ball on the block, that two league sources familiar with his thinking say that it could soon cause Howard to question his future with the franchise.

After listening to him unload Tuesday night – his voice even, words measured – that shouldn’t be a surprise. He has always been the polite, obliging aw-shucks kid, but this colossal collapse brought out a side never seen with Howard.

Even before he unloaded on too few plays called for him, too few touches, he delivered an unprovoked assault on Van Gundy’s decision to pull the players responsible for constructing that double-digit lead late in the game. He wanted to see his coach stay longer with the bench of Tony Battie(notes) and Mickael Pietrus.

As Howard said, “The coaches have to recognize what’s working on the floor and stick with it,” he said. “When you’re in a situation where guys got it going, you know everybody’s moving the ball and the energy is up, you have to stick with … what works.”

Howard even alluded to the fact that Doc Rivers turned to Stephon Marbury(notes) and Eddie House(notes) for fourth-quarter scoring that saved the Celtics in Games 2 and 5, respectively. “Their coach left the guys on the floor that got the job done. That’s what championship teams do.”

The Celtics have a magnificent defender on Howard, Kendrick Perkins(notes), one of the best in basketball. He insisted that, “They tried to get it to him. … They tried. I think the biggest thing with Dwight is he thrives off getting dunks. When he gets dunks early, he gets going.”

Well, Howard never did get going in Game 5, and it left him seething after this night, and maybe this series, slipped away. Now, Howard has set the stage for a showdown with his coach. This is uncharted territory for this relationship, and now, something that Howard had kept to himself tumbled into the open.

Dwight Howard wants the ball, and he wants it with the season on the line in Game 6. He’s the biggest, most devastating low-post force in the league, and enough is enough. If the Magic are going down in this series, he sure as hell doesn’t want it going down with Rafer Alston(notes) throwing balls away, and Hedo Turkoglu(notes) and Rashard Lewis(notes) missing eight of nine 3-pointers in a Game 5.

“I just think that I have to be more aggressive, run … demand the ball,” Howard said. And after all these lost possessions, lost trips down the floor, the biggest, baddest center in the sport finally did.

Howard called out his coach, and called for the ball. The season is on the line, and there’s no more time to waste. Enough is enough, Howard barked. His voice never rose, but his message was unmistakable: He’s the franchise star here, and he had better start getting the respect that comes with that from these Magic.

Dwight Howard thought long and hard and finally let the unspoken truth out of his mouth: Get me the ball, coach, and get the hell out of my way.
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Source: Yahoo Sports

You can't go on public record with those comments. If Howard wants the ball work for position and demand it.

Shapecity · May 13, 2009

It seems as if every fan understands that playoff basketball is about more than talent and strategy. It tests a mental and psychological component that doesn't come into play during the regular season. So why can't the Orlando Magic get the message?

They're stuck in a long, back-and-forth series with the Boston Celtics largely because they've been their own worst enemy. Incredibly -- given how close they are to the Eastern Conference Finals -- they can't stick to a game plan, refuse to repeat what's successful and lapse into extended stretches of lazy play. Desperate teams grind it out defensively, work to get quality shots and lean on their stars to carry them. That's what the Celtics did in Game 4, for instance. Orlando hasn't shown that same level of effort, execution and focus. How exactly do the Magic manage to hurt themselves? Let us count the ways ...

(1) The Magic don't commit fully at the defensive end.
Orlando allowed Boston to shoot 58 percent from the field in Game 4 -- that's not playoff-caliber D. And the frustrating thing is that Orlando's concepts are sound. Take the last play of Game 4. The Magic guarded the Celtics' eventual game-winning play correctly, running over the top of a screen for Ray Allen, trapping the pick-and-roll with Paul Pierce and forcing him to give the ball up. They even tried to close out on Glen Davis, although the presence of Allen and Eddie House on the opposite side of the court slowed their ability to help. Davis just made a shot, and that will happen. But if the Magic approached every defensive possession with that kind of commitment to Stan Van Gundy's instructions, the series might already be over.

Instead, their players continue to display a lack of focus and toughness. Throughout the series, Orlando has done a poor job of keeping Boston out of the paint. And Dwight Howard, despite being the Defensive Player of the Year, hasn't been a great help defender. Yes, he has blocked some shots, but there have been too many occasions where Pierce, in particular, has driven to the rim without Howard providing an obstacle. It's not like he has to worry about guarding Kendrick Perkins -- he should always be able to cut off penetration. Orlando's other defensive rotations are extremely slow, allowing the Celtics to get far too many easy looks. With their talent, the Magic can fix all of these defensive problems if they want to. But that's turned into a bigger "if" than you'd expect at this stage of the playoffs.

(2) They refuse to pound the ball inside.
Let's see. The Celtics don't have anyone who can guard Rashard Lewis, who has at times absolutely killed Boston inside and saddled Davis and Brian Scalabrine with foul trouble. He needs to touch the ball 15 times a game on the left block, every game. But the Magic aren't coming close to matching that number. In addition, Orlando has been consistently successful running pick-and-rolls with Howard. When he sets a pick, Perkins is forced to show/help on the dribbler, enabling Howard to roll directly to the rim. When the Magic move the ball quickly on the perimeter, they're able to throw the ball inside to Howard deep in the post before Perkins can recover. And we all know how well Howard finishes down low. But, as with Lewis, the Magic refuse to attack this way on a consistent basis. Why? Because ...

3) They fall in love with the 3-point shot.
Yes, Orlando is an excellent 3-point shooting team. But when they hoist treys at the expense of working hard for better shots, the Magic let the Celtics off the hook defensively. We saw it in Game 1, when Orlando nearly let a 28-point lead evaporate during the last 20 minutes, in part because they launched the first open shot they found. We definitely saw it Game 4, when the Magic had the Celtics in foul trouble, yet hoisted 27 3s (making five) instead of finishing off Boston's decimated front line by continuing to go to Lewis and Howard. When Hedo Turkoglu attacks off the dribble to make plays for himself and teammates, the Magic are tough to stop. When he settles for step-back 3s, any opposing coach is thrilled. The Celtics don't have any shot-blockers and their foul-prone frontcourt gives the Magic the chance to get into the bonus early each quarter. Put it this way: If the Magic had attacked the basket consistently in Game 4, Davis, who had four fouls, probably wouldn't have been in the game to make that game-winning shot.

(4) They don't trust their coach the way the Celtics do.
The Celtics are in this series because they believe in Doc Rivers. He has done a masterful job without Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe, refusing to allow his team to make excuses. And that last play of Game 4 shows how Rivers' influence is paying off. For five seasons, Rivers has preached trusting your teammates. A younger Pierce might have forced up a shot, regardless of the defense's coverage. But he has evolved and bought into Doc's teachings. So, instead, he trusted Davis when he drew the double-team, passed him the ball and watched the young power forward knock down a jumper with confidence.

Meanwhile, Van Gundy is giving the Magic the blueprint to win, and it's not exactly complicated. Yet the Magic players are either hardheaded, defiant or immature, because they refuse to carry out his simple (but important) keys in every game. When their coach says to go inside, they need to get the ball inside. When he tells them to stop settling for jump shots, they need to drive the ball to the rim. When he gives them the defensive game plan, they must individually and collectively take ownership of that end of the floor. If they do exactly as he says, they have more than enough weapons to defeat Boston. However, if they continue to ignore Van Gundy's plan, the Celtics will move on to play the Cavaliers next week. And the Magic? they'll be packing their bags for the summer.
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Source ESPN Insider

CelticKing · May 13, 2009

Yeah that's bad, Stan will get fired as soon as the series is over if Howard doesn't like him, simple as that.

But Howard has to take most of the blame, isn't he supposed to be the best center/pf in the league? Dominating other average centers, the likes of even Perk included? We haven't seen that in this series.

Lewis and Turk at times are the only two who have been playing good and are earning their paychecks. lol

Shapecity · May 13, 2009

This isn't the first time these two have had a confrontation. I remember SVG criticized Howard for not playing hard on the defensive end. Unless Orlando can win this series I can't imagine SVG being their coach next year. Obviously, you can't have your head coach and franchise player feuding. Howard doesn't exactly have any great moves in the post yet, no mid range jumper, and he's a liability at the free throw line.

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