Is Dwight leading our home court failures?

[magicmamma]

Dwight Howard typifies home court flops

The 96-94 loss to the Houston Rockets on Friday night was just the most glaring example.

For the fifth consecutive game at Amway Arena, Howard failed to reach his team-high scoring average of 22.6 points. For the second consecutive home game, he failed to reach his league-leading average of 15.4 rebounds.

In the Magic's last four road games, Howard has averaged 22.5 points and 17 rebounds. In the Magic's last four home games before Friday night, he had averaged 16 points and 14.5 rebounds.

I love Dwight, but these stats reflect my own impression of his play at home this year. I keep wanting to see the Dwight I watched on TV, but he doesn't seem to get up his usual energy -- particularly for defense -- and hampers his play by getting totally distracted by bad calls and no-calls. On one play on Friday Dwight was still at the other end of the court whining when the ball was at the basket with Hedo defending Yao (he fouled him and Yao made both FTs). It's hard to get a chant of "MVP" going in the Amway when your MVP keeps turning in below average performances there.

Our game is so totally dependent on Dwight that when he isn't playing well, the whole team struggles. It's not "all his fault," but it can be a trigger. At the beginning of the season, SVG said he didn't want players complaining about bad calls or allowing themselves to be distracted by them. I'll bet one game of giving Dwight a "time out" on the bench every time he reacted to a call would do wonders for his focus.

[Optimus_Steel]

I been saying it all along, despite our other holes and shortcomings, when Dwight plays defense like he is mad and angry the team usually wins. This is because he makes it harder for teams to score when he is playing like that and the team picks up Dwights energy and turns it up. When he doesnt play with that angry intensity we get carved on defense, dont hustle as much and usually lose.

[craig01]

I think some of it is the crappy schedule.

The Magic will get more consistent once they play games at home regularly.

Almost every home game seems like it has been preceded by several on the road.

Now the Magic go west again.........

I think Howard will play much better once the schedule begins to even itself out.

JMO.

[NEM]

so dwight needs to stay pissed off

[aleZ]

Hard to play at 100% when the refs are trying to take you out of the game, I may be wrong (don't wanna check the stats) but D12 has always fouled out due to offensive fouls = flopping/bad calls. That rarely happened to shaq in LA when he just walked on opponents.

But yea, arguing a call is pointless anyway, especially if you're the main option on defense.

[UCFJayBird]

His intensity is a problem for him at home sure. Maybe he feels his teammates will step up at home, or the opponent will play worse. Maybe he just gets nervous in front of the home crowd or something.

But another problem for Dwight at home is his FTs. He is shooting 55% from the FT line at home, 62% on the road.

These are my own stats below, so if there's an error I apologize but i'm pretty sure it's accurate.

We are 7-8 at home.

In our WINS at home, Dwight is averaging 58.5% from the line. He was only below .500 ONCE (5/12). Overall, in wins, Dwight is 55/94 from the line, taking an average of 13.4 FTAs per game, making nearly 7.8 per game.

In LOSSES at home, Dwight is averaging 52% from the line. He was below .500 in five of the eight games. Overall in losses, he is 53/102 from the line, taking an average of 12.75 FTAs per game, making 6.6 per game.

I'm not too worried yet though. Like someone else said the inconsistency of it could be a problem. We haven't had a home game stretch last more than 2 games, and we've already had two road trips of 4+ games, and we're embarking on our 3rd.

In case anyones wondering, our first home stint of 3+ is 5 games, Feb 4th-13th. So still another month before we get our first real home stint.

[spinedoc]

I think some of it is the crappy schedule.

The Magic will get more consistent once they play games at home regularly.

Almost every home game seems like it has been preceded by several on the road.

Now the Magic go west again.........

I think Howard will play much better once the schedule begins to even itself out.

JMO.

Good point, they are whooped by the time they get back home. They look tired, and it turns into exhaustion when we don't get the calls. Although it is unbelievable that we can't get those calls that other teams do at home, you can't stand around and cry about it. Once to get your point accross and the ref looking for it the next time down, but anything more than that comes off as whining. Doc Rivers gave us a terrible reputation for that. I want that light to go off and have him turn that into anger and intensity instead, ironically then he will start getting the calls. One thing that I have noticed lately is how he will goal tend after every foul to prevent the shot. No one gets to make sure the ball still fits in the hoop when Dwight is out there. I like the message it sends.

[magicmamma]

One thing we should realize is that this team has still played the most games in the NBA to date. That, combined with the large number of road games, means we haven't had much time for practice. That is changing soon. When time at home isn't a quick game or two and back on the road, but time to work hard on the practice court, our coaches have a chance to see what they can do with the team's weaknesses.

[Optimus_Steel]

One thing we should realize is that this team has still played the most games in the NBA to date. That, combined with the large number of road games, means we haven't had much time for practice. That is changing soon. When time at home isn't a quick game or two and back on the road, but time to work hard on the practice court, our coaches have a chance to see what they can do with the team's weaknesses.

Thats a good point. Earlier in the week we had played 5 more games than Atl. We have played the most of anybody and the road schedule has been crazy.

[Shishnizzle]

I have noticed that Howard hangs his head if he does'nt get his touches on offense. Which is moronic by him because he is usually going to score at least half of his points on put backs. He should stop worrying about how they get him the ball and get after it on rebounding, and blocking shots. We won't win if he just wants to be a scorer. He has been getting alot of easy rebounds of late but I hav'nt noticed him going after the ball like normal lately. He does need some help rebounding. Lewis is not going to give him any help in that department.

[UCFJayBird]

dude the guy is averaging 15 ppg. He's on track to be only the 2nd guy in NBA history to average 22 ppg, 15 rpg, and shooting 60% from the field (Wilt the only other). There's a reason Dwight is angry about not getting his touches, he's earned them.

[MagicStarwipe]

He should be angry about not getting touches. The team is just not good at getting him the ball right now. Some of that is on Stan. We just need more practice.

[OrlandoMagic]

We can only fault ourselves as fans for our failures at home. I went to the Rockets game, and Ill be damned we have the most boring crowds ever. It never got exciting until the end. Nobody cheered the team to even help make a run. As fans we are pathetic, its no wonder our team looks like they dont give a damn at home. You watch the Jazz, Nuggets, Suns, Warriors, all their fans are excited as hell. Watch our games on TV and its digusting.

[The Letter J]

2 keys to success for Dwight:

1) No crap calls from officials to get him in early foul trouble.
2) Give him the ball.

[lovehoops01]

He should be angry about not getting touches. The team is just not good at getting him the ball right now. Some of that is on Stan. We just need more practice.

Stan has said this, too. He said they need to look at new ways to get Dwight the ball, and he said that is his responsibility. He said that about Rashard, too.

It's tough this time of year. They're more than two months in. Dwight has been getting beat on nightly. They've played so many games but they are not even halfway through the schedule yet. This, though, is what separates the real professionals. They really need to focus.

I wouldn't say that it's Dwight's fault, though something does seem to have him a little out of sorts lately. Just in his quotes he doesn't sound like himself. It is unrealistic to expect him to go out and get 20 and 20 every night. That is hard as hell to do and to expect that is taking him for granted. No fan in this city should do that. Although I'd still rather have Dwight, he might start getting a challenge from Andrew Bynum, though. That guy has been playing well.

To get back to the topic of the thread, though, the reporter doesn't exactly cite a long string of games, either. Five is as long as he can go. That doesn't exactly create a trend. Plus, the entire team has been doing some whacked things on the floor. I don't think any of them have looked as sharp lately as they did closer to the start of the season.

Ya'll are grumpy. You hate everything right now. You just need to go back to school or work fulltime and stop spending all your time focused on what the basketball team is doing wrong.

[rockybalboa11]

he was playing against yao

don't blame the dude

rashard needs to learn how to be worth $120 million