AJC: Atlanta Hawks at Magic Game 2: Dwight Defense and jump shots Part II?

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Orlando–Some stats types are dismissive of the Hawks’ Game 1 victory because of the way Hurricane Dwight scattered them and also because of all of those long jump shots they made.

Example: Mike Prada of SBNation.

Apparently, it is possible for an NBA team to allow a player to score 46 points and be universally praised for it. Dwight Howard ran all over the Atlanta Hawks’ single-coverage, but because nobody else on his team decided to do much of anything, the Hawks came away with a Game 1 victory on the road. Howard and Jameer Nelson scored 73 points; everyone else on the Magic scored 20. Howard and Nelson shot 26-41; everyone else shot 8-34. It was a brilliant strategy by the Hawks to make sure that their horrible teammates had horrible games. Let’s praise them for it!

Snark aside, the bottom line is this. Playing Howard straight-up and taking away the three-point shooters is a strategy. Allowing Howard to score 46 points and hope his teammates shoot 8-34 is not. Luckily, the …

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