Man, that was something. I loved the defensive effort. The “bigs” did a great job, for the most part, of rooting Dwight Howard out of the lane all night and everyone else contributed to hounding Howard when he attempted to operate at the post with the ball.

Martell Webster continues to show what he can do with regular minutes and a consistent role. I mean, this guy is showing signs of either becoming a very, very good player or becoming an outstanding trade piece. He’s already a player other teams are talking about as someone, depending on Nic Batum’s development, who could be available.

Andre Miller and Steve Blake were terrific . . . oh, what’s the point of trying to single out individuals? This one was a great team win from start to finish.

One thing I must say, though, about the Orlando Magic: I’ve been around the league for a long time now and what I saw from them Friday night was downright shameful. And I haven’t seen it too often from what is a high-level team that was in the NBA Finals last season.

The Magic just sort of quit. Rolled over. And it appeared to me that the reason is simple — those guys want to get their coach fired. They aren’t listening to him and they’re actually embarrassing him with their on-court actions. Their effort level and attention span were just not there.

Stan Van Gundy has the reputation of a guy who grinds on his players and I’m afraid he’s gotten to this group. They appear, at least for the time being, to have tuned him out.

And once that happens, it’s usually only a matter of time before the coach finds himself on the street.

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Tags: Andre Miller, Dwight Howard, Dwight Jaynes, Martell Webster, Orlando Magic, Portland Trail Blazers, Stan Van Gundy, Steve Blake

It’s Insider Only content but the link is here. Yes, Oden is No. 20 — in the entire league. Among all players. PER is an efficiency rating system that’s accepted by many as the best way to rate players’ all-around contribution to their teams. No. 1 is Chris Paul, by the way.

Next highest Trail Blazer in the rankings is Brandon Roy at No. 44. The only true center ahead of Oden is Dwight Howard at No. 14. Oden’s usage rate (the number of possessions he uses per 40 minutes) is appreciably lower than anyone higher than him on the list.

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Tags: Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, John Hollinger

My bad. All along, I was thinking in terms of a point guard being the answer to Portland’s problem of getting the ball more frequently into the low post. But as David Thorpe points out on True Hoop today, it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.

The side pick-and-roll is the most devastating play in basketball and Portland didn’t have a lot of success running it last season. Mostly, that was because nobody looked (or had the ability) to dish the ball to the guy rolling to the basket. Greg Oden got so tired of not seeing the ball on the pick-and-roll that his frustration was apparent. And face it, Joel Przybilla used to thrive on this play when Damon Stoudamire was still a Blazer. Damon used to tell me later what an underutilized offensive player Joel was in Portland once he left — Joel really was a pretty good finisher on this play. But he had nobody to run it with here the last few seasons — only Sergio Rodriguez was skilled at making the pass on the end of that play.

Hedo Turkoglu can run it, though, and run it just about as well as any big player in the league:

Thorpe says that if the Portland rumors are true, Nate McMillan should already be watching the Magic and planning to add a side pick-and-roll to the playbook with Turkoglu and Greg Oden.

“Dwight Howard was amazing at diving to the hoop on the play, running straight down the lane to make himself a threat to catch the ball at the hoop. Greg Oden will have to do that, and then if I were LaMarcus Aldridge, I’d spend the summer mastering the NBA 3, like Rashard Lewis — because when the small forward and the center are running this play , the help usually comes from the power forward who can be wide open in the corner.

But Thorpe sounds a warning, too, and it’s one that would concern me if Turkoglu becomes a Trail Blazer. The guy needs the ball, needs to be “engaged” to get the best out of him. I’m not sure how that works with all those touches Brandon Roy gets:

Thorpe cautions, however, that he does not believe Turkoglu would thrive in any system. “He’s a little bit like Lamar Odom. The game comes so easy to him, and he’s so talented, that sometimes he loses focus. Stan Van Gundy handled that really well. He was very smart. He ran a ton of side pick and rolls for Turkoglu, which forced him to lock in. People criticized Van Gundy for that, saying he should have gotten the ball to Dwight Howard more … but a lot of those side pick and rolls ended in dunks for Dwight Howard. If you just stuck him on a team as complimentary player, and expect him to hit some open shots, then I don’t think he would be nearly as productive. But when you keep Turkoglu engaged, he’s a very special small forward.

“Turkoglu may have been the third or fourth best player on the Magic this season. But he played better than that, because of how the team forced him to be playmaker, which is what he does best. Now, his sense of urgency still wavered some. But in the playoffs, his focus was just about always there, and that’s a huge part of the reason the Magic made it so far.”

I appreciate the knowledge. I’ve gone from being anti-Turkoglu to now being a little more accepting. But you must remember, a lot has to change for Portland to have success with “The Michael Jordan of Turkey.” Brandon Roy is not only going to have to give up the ball some, he’s going to probably have to expect to score fewer points. Not only will Turkoglu score, he’ll get Oden points, too. Aldridge must learn to hit that corner three-pointer. And the point guard must be a pretty good spot-up shooter, too.

It would make for a fascinating new approach.

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Tags: Brandon Roy, David Thorpe, Dwight Howard, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Hedo Turkoglu, LaMarcus Aldridge, Nate McMillan, True Hoop

Yeah, Derek Fisher was the hero. He made two monumental three-point field goals.

But come on, the whole NBA Finals went right down the drain when Dwight Howard couldn’t get just one of two free throws to go down with 11.1 seconds to play in regulation. Or, you could even say when Hedo Turkoglu couldn’t make more than one of four free throws during a stretch late in the fourth quarter.

I have never been able to understand this stuff. I mean, none of those guys “choked” the free throws. They weren’t short or way off — they just flat missed them. Professional players. GREAT professional players. Superstars. And a guy can’t get one out of two free throws to go in.

But this is nothing new in basketball. Folks, Wilt Chamberlain couldn’t make free throws, either. Shaq obviously never could. A lot of players — particularly big players — have trouble with free throws.

It’s all hard for average people like us to understand, though. Free throws. You can teach non-athletes to make free throws. It’s just practice. Repetition. Concentration. Focus. Whatever.

Dwight Howard – just make one of them and you have the NBA Finals tied at two games apiece and anything can happen. You have the Lakers doubting themselves. You have a real shot at this thing.

But you missed them both and the whole thing is pretty much finished. Oh, you’ll win Game 5, but the Lakers won’t waste any time wrapping it up in six, as predicted. But it all could have been different.

Just a free throw. Man, just make one out of two, Dwight.

(AND A SIDEBAR: What irks me, too, is that now we’ll have to forever hear that the Magic didn’t win this series because they didn’t have the go-to player who can get his own shot on offense . . . the guy who can run that clear-out, 1-4 thing at the end of games… yeah — that’s why they didn’t win. Uh, no — don’t overthink this thing. They missed 15 FREAKING FREE THROWS to lose Game 4 and they missed a layup at the buzzer to lose Game 2.)

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Tags: Derek Fisher, Dwight Howard, Dwight Jaynes, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA Finals, Orlando Magic, Shaquille O'Neal, Wilt Chamberlain

And now, thanks to a reminder from that guy, who has been one of our solid commenters from the first days of this blog, I wanted to ask you a question:

LeBron James and Dwight Howard — if they were playing major-league baseball right now, would there be anyone NOT accusing them of using performance-enhancing drugs? Seriously.

These guys are carved out of granite. They’ve continued to get bigger and bigger through their young careers. Way unnaturally big. They are total physical freaks in their ability to be strong, thick, tall and yet quick. Sorry, but this of the type of athlete who, I swear, didn’t even exist back a couple of decades ago. Yeah, there were guys who were big like this — but they didn’t have quickness in the same universe as these guys.

Now please understand, everyone I know in a position to know things about the NBA says there’s no juicing going on. And yeah, they test for it — which means absolutely nothing. I have no knowledge of either of them taking anything illegal.

I’m just saying — and I don’t know if this says more about baseball than it does about basketball —  if they played for the Cleveland Indians or Tampa Bay Rays, wouldn’t you be accusing them of juicing?

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Tags: Dwight Howard, Dwight Jaynes, Lebron James, NBA, steroids

Yes, Stan Van Gundy paces the sidelines with all the body language of a neurotic car salesman on the verge of losing a sale. But I’m telling you, the guy can coach — and if being neurotic means you can’t coach, well, Larry Brown should have been retired decades ago.

Orlando executes and it’s fun to watch. Seriously, the Magic play the game together and with great purpose. Obviously, they are well prepared and stick with the game plan. They defend hard at one end, rebound the ball and on offense, play what’s going to become, I think, the new NBA prototype for basketball offense.

The Magic have a beast on the inside. A guy who still has miles to go before he’s totally polished at the low post, but Dwight Howard has so much strength and energy, he’s still just about impossible to stop. Then Orlando surrounds him with unselfish perimeter shooters, guys who will pass up a decent shot so a teammate can get an even better one.

With Howard inside demanding so much attention, the three-point shooters around the edges are getting wide-open looks. And then it becomes a numbers game. You know, that old stuff about shooting 40 percent from three-point range is like shooting 60 percent from two-point range.

The Magic run a lot of pick-and-roll and are also pretty good at getting people the ball heading to the basket. It’s not all Howard dunks. Orlando has players who can go to the basket hard and pull up for makeable short jumpers if necessary.

Hey, I’m an old-school guy. I’ve always preached the importance of getting the ball inside. I’ve always emphasized the value of getting the best big man. I think that’s all still true, but it has to be done in concert with solid three-point shooting.

We’ve witnessed the disappearance of the medium-range jumper and moaned about it a little. But the fact is, it’s justified. They give you three points for those shots behind the line, why shoot two feet in front of the line?

The new model of offense, I think, will not devalue the post player. You still have to find that guy who can command double-teams on the inside. But then the ball comes all the way out for open threes, which you simply have to make on a consistent basis. If you can’t make them, you better go find some players who can because it’s going to be hard to keep up without a sufficient number of three-point goals.

I’ve been one of those guys, for years, saying you can’t win championships with jump shots. With three-pointers. Now I’m not so sure. Getting points three at a time makes for some pretty efficient offense. And there are getting to be a lot of people — even BIG people — who can make those shots.

Now all you have to do is find the Dwight Howard part of the model. He guarantees you not just those three-pointers, but OPEN three-pointers.

By the way, who else has the best chance of developing an offense like that in the NBA? The Trail Blazers, I’d say. They’re pretty good from distance now and they have the beast inside in Greg Oden. And really, Howard isn’t that much more skilled one-on-one than Oden. He’s just more confident and stays out of foul trouble better. But it took him a few years to get there.

Can the Magic take it all the way? Sure they can. Will they? It’s still too early to tell. It may depend on whether whoever comes out of the West, probably the Lakers, has any energy left for another series.

It’s been so long since a team has come from out of nowhere — basically, not one of the chosen teams the league has marketed as a championship contender — to win it all that I can’t yet picture them doing it. And please, don’t think the Orlando defense isn’t a huge part of all this, it is terrific and the Magic wouldn’t be this far without it. But I’m fascinated by the offense.

I’ve seen the future of NBA offense and the future is Magical.

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Tags: Dwight Howard, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, NBA playoffs, Orlando Magic, Portland Trail Blazers, Stan Van Gundy

I really don’t know what to make of this idle chat, which features a discussion of dealing Nic Batum, Steve Blake and Greg Oden for Tony Parker. Are you kidding me? Is it April Fool’s Day again already? Is somebody trying to punk me here?

Yeah, I know — it’s supposed to be three guys sitting on a park bench idly chattering. It’s one of those “would you trade . . .” kind of deals rather than a prediction of something that could ever actually happen. But come on, this is the kind of nonsense that would get you laughed out of your favorite barber shop. It’s a non-starter of a topic even in that venue. It reminds me a little of the silly “Who would you rather be, Superman or Batman?” arguments we used to have in sixth grade.

So you’re saying that the Blazers — who still have Jermaine O’Neal nightmares every time they consider trading the likes of Travis Outlaw or Sergio Rodriguez — are going to let go of Nic Batum and Greg Oden, together, at this point of their careers?

Nope. Especially not for a guy who is going to be a free agent in a year. I cannot imagine handing Batum and Oden to Gregg Popovich and then watching him turn those guys into multi-year all-stars.

Besides, I’m still the guy out here believing that someday Oden is going to turn into the XXL version of Dwight Howard.

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Tags: Dwight Howard, Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Nic Batum, Portland Trail Blazers, Sergio Rodriguez, Steve Blake, Tony Parker, Travis Outlaw

The “Wheels at Work” crew on 95.5 The Game had one of my all-time favorite guys — Indiana assistant coach Dick Harter — on their show yesterday.

You may remember Dick as the head coach at Oregon for many years and an assistant coach to P.J. Carlesimo with the Blazers. Anyway, Dick, a defensive guru throughout his coaching career, was talking about the Pacers’ Danny Granger and how Granger has dedicated himself now to becoming a better defensive player.

“Your best player has to also be your best defensive player,” Harter said (and I’m doing my best to quote him accurately since I was driving when I heard it and couldn’t take notes). “Look around — LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, those guys are first-team all-defense. You have to have that to win now.”

I had never thought about it in those terms because I don’t believe that’s always been the case. Certainly Larry Bird wasn’t his team’s best defender. Neither was Isiah Thomas or Magic Johnson. But times have changed in the NBA. Nobody is winning games just by running up and down the floor and outscoring you. They’re winning by stopping you.

In today’s NBA, Dick Harter may well be correct.

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Tags: 95.5 The Game, Danny Granger, Dick Harter, Dwight Howard, Dwight Jaynes, Indiana Pacers, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Wheels at Work

You’ve heard about Howard’s one-game suspension by now. But there were three referees on the court at that game and none of them, for whatever reason, stepped up and called that play correctly at the time — which would have meant bouncing Howard out of the game right then and there. That’s a pretty bad officiating mistake, I’d say. (Not as bad as not having the guts to call a flagrant foul on Rondo against Miller with a game on the line in Chicago, but that’s another story).

So shouldn’t Joey Crawford, Marc Davis and Derrick Stafford — the trio working the Orlando-Philly contest — be suspended, too?

Of course, they could be and we’d never know because the NBA usually doesn’t announce such things.

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Tags: Derrick Stafford, Dwight Howard, Dwight Jaynes, Joey Crawford, Marc Davis, NBA playoffs, one-game suspension

Rudy Fernandez apparently will be announced today as the final participant in the NBA’s dunk contest during All-Star Weekend. I’ve got an idea for you, Rudy — a prop you can use on your first dunk.

Get one of the other participants in the contest, oh, maybe a guy by the name of Dwight Howard, to go stand under the rim while you slam it down in his grill, OK? (By the way, this famous dunk came off a defensive switch by the USA team in the Olympics, with poor Howard, the USA center, trying to keep up with Rudy on the way to the basket. What kind of pick-and-roll defense is that? What was Howard doing trying to chase Rudy down? Hmm, guess who the defensive coach for the U.S. team was?)

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Tags: Dwight Howard, Dwight Jaynes, Nate McMillan, NBA slam-dunk contest, Rudy Fernandez, U.S. Olympic basketball