Al may need to go back to the 5

[Wurider05]

Van Gundy left Howard in for the entire game. That meant that we could never have our most effective combinations in the game due to needing a big man to "guard" Howard. My question is how much more dominant can Howard be than he is right now. Twin is doing squat. He is shooting a high percentage, he is out rebounding him and to top it off Howard doesn't have to guard Twin on offense. We won the first game and you all get excited. I didn't want to be a party pooper so I kept my mouth close. Last night show's how this series will go. We can beat them but we won't beat them. Twin is a joke and that fact that many of you gave him props for holding Howard to 46 and 19 is ridiculous. Again I don't think that Howard would dominate Horford this bad. We can have the same game plan of playing him straight up with Al instead of Twin who brings nothing else to the table. Van Gundy has figure this out and don't be surprised if he plays all 48 on Friday. You see how we turn into a jumpshooting team and when we miss you got Howard sitting there waiting for the rebound knowing that he won't have to outwork Twin to get it. At least playing Al at the 5 with his much improved jumpshot will force Howard to play some defense and have to guard someone. You remember how Jason Collier use to force Shaq to come out and guard him because he had pretty good range. we can do this with Al he has an awesome jumpshot that they must respect. Twin has no offensive skill whatsoever. We are losing perimeter defense with the "big lineup". We won the first game because of offense not defense.

Of course the refs aren't helping either but we can't control that.

[Nicholasp27]

the problem is that we don't want horford to get fouls against howard, as he sits for rest of half after getting 2 fouls

the problem is that horford has an advantage over bass/anderson at pf that we can exploit (when he's not cold after sitting for a half)

playing howard 1:1 is a good thing...i thought we switched too much on men last night and did too much doubling which led to open shots...i liked us sticking more man-to-man in game one

[hawkman]

the problem is that we don't want horford to get fouls against howard, as he sits for rest of half after getting 2 fouls

the problem is that horford has an advantage over bass/anderson at pf that we can exploit (when he's not cold after sitting for a half)

playing howard 1:1 is a good thing...i thought we switched too much on men last night and did too much doubling which led to open shots...i liked us sticking more man-to-man in game one

Agreed. At first, I wanted to see Horf try to guard Dwight, but now I agree it's not worth it. That just results in Horf being on the bench for a half. Let Collins, Zaza, and whoever soak up those fouls. But I will say I think Twin has done a pretty decent job on Dwight, especially with Orl going to him on almost EVERY single posession. The Hawks just need to stick to the gameplan and continue to guard man to man with maybe an occasional double to shake things up. Hinrich actually got a steal in Game 1 when he caught Dwight off guard with a double.

[macdaddy]

From AJC today.

The Magic were -21.3 points per 48 minutes with Twin on the court during the regular season. After two playoff games, they are . . . . -21.3 per 48 minutes with Twin on the court.

With Zaza on the court, the Magic were +9.8 per 48 minutes during the regular season and are +8.6 in the playoffs. The numbers vs. Etan are +31.1 and +27.4, vs. Powell -4.4 and +9.0. Armstrong didn’t play against Orlando during the regular season with the Hawks; the Magic were +61.7 per 48 vs. him in Game 2.

[HawksFan87]

howard having his way with twin ?? what 2 games did u watch ?? twin has given him more trouble than anyone else on this roster. And AL can not guard Dwight at all, so NO AL does not need to go back to C

[capstone21]

howard having his way with twin ?? what 2 games did u watch ?? twin has given him more trouble than anyone else on this roster. And AL can not guard Dwight at all, so NO AL does not need to go back to C

Yes, it was Powell, Zaza, Thomas and especially Armstrong who Howard was destroying.

Zaza was putting up at least a fight.

Collins has done a good job against him.

[SneakerKing33]

What game are you watching? Wow

[Eddielives]

Ummm....no. Horf playing the power forward is one of the smartest things Drew has done all year. We need to stick with the hack a Howard technique. Hell, he scored 46 points the first game and we still won. We would of won last night if we started driving the ball a little more instead of settling for low percentage jumpshots. And for the record, damn Joe, could you watch some tape of yourself from January and please earn a little more of that paycheck please?

Edited April 20, 2011 by Eddielives

[ngc7]

thank god your not coaching

collins needs more minutes ... NO MORE POWELL ON HOWARD LD !!!!

[Diesel]

Totally disagree.

Al is needed for scoring, defense, and rebounding. None ofthat is possible if he's a part of the David Stern let Dwight Howard collect as many fouls as he can parade.

[sasuke]

you loco

[Bawse]

Insane post. Twin is doing a great job on Dwight, he's already frustrated him to the point of complaining, and if he didn't rack the fouls up so easy, the Magic would be shut down early. Collins has always been known as a defensive player, the same guy that was a threat for the Nets during their championship run in 2003.

Edited April 22, 2011 by Boss