Is Dwight Howard Over-Rated?

Dwight Howard has become an iconic NBA figure with his monstrous dunks, Superman costume, and childlike enjoyment of the game. Its always hard to crap on a guy you like (and I really like Howard and his swagger), but isn't Dwight Howard overrated?

Looking at the Celtics Magic series its hard not to see him that way, especially looking back at game five. I know Howard is a dependable double-double every night of the season; I know he fills out every inch and pound of his 6' 11", 265 pound frame; I know his dunks can make you involuntarily rise from your seat. However its the things Howard can't do that have left the bigger impression on me.

The biggest problem is that he can't score in an offensive set, at least not with Kendrick Perkins and Glen Davis guarding him. His game fiver effectiveness was minimal, even worse than his stat line says: 37 minutes, 5-10 FG, 17 reb, 4 TOs, 12 points. Let's start with Dwight Howard's meager 12 points, which came on five baskets. Three of those five hoops came on offensive rebound putbacks or fastbreak dunks, meaning 40 percent of his baskets (only two hoops in 37 minutes!!!) came from offensive sets. Here's who else had two baskets in offensive sets: Brian Scalabrine. Here's who had five baskets in offensive sets: Stephon Marbury. (And in case you were wondering, of his 31 field goals, only 20 of them are from offensive sets, making him pretty harmless in a halfcourt set.) Seems to me that a solid box out from Perk (6'10" 280 lbs) or Big Baby (6'9" 285 lbs) would cut his already limited offense by about a third.

Howard called out Stan Van Gundy after game five for not getting him the ball enough especially down the stretch. Again, another Howard boo-boo. While Van Gundy looked like MacGruber trying to get the bomb out of the missile silo during the fourth quarter, Howard's lack of touches ranks extremely low on the list of errors (listing said mistakes would put me over my imaginary word count).

Now you might counter that Dwight Howard is known for his defense too, and that's a good point since he was the defensive player of the year. Howard's 11 blocks are the same number that Perkins has had in less time. He may have the edge in steals but Howard's shot changing ability is apparently matched by our rarely praised center. Oh and don't forget Howard's turnover margin is disastrous, with Rondo being the only Celtic dishing out more mistakes than him.

In the end, clearly a team that has Dwight Howard is lucky to have him, but in this playoff series I am underwhelmed. He should have been the one major advantage the Magic have over the Celtics, especially with Garnett on the sideline, and yet has been neutralized by Perk. We're talking about a guy who was first team All-NBA against a guy who was our worst starter heading into the playoffs. I'm sure Van Gundy's game plan isn't helping him, but eventually a star exerts himself on the game, instead of the letting the game exert itself on him.

Cant Win Em All

Statistical truth: Its very hard to win a basketball game when your opponent shoots lights out from the three point line in the first half and you are running on tired legs. That's not an excuse, its a statistical truth. It's also hard to win a basketball game when your two players who step it up the most are Brian Scalabrine and Stephon Marbury. (Seriously how great was Scalabrine? His intensity on defense and hustle and knack for open shots on offense was the driving force behind the Celtics second half energy.)

The good news? For a team that looked fairly overmatched for most of the game, the C's kept it close, kept it interesting, and kept the faith. We can look at it as something to build on or something to pack up after. "Get busy living or get busy dying, you damn right." If we had let the Magic continue that early second half beatdown, it would have been easy to quit or say the Bulls series was enough. Basically the team could have pulled a Shaughnessy. Instead they stared down the deficit and the deficit blinked. Now this series doesn't seem so daunting.

Four simple tactical changes that could turn the series real quickly:

1) Take advantage of the mismatches on offense. Ray Allen wasn't great but you have to work him on Reddick more than we did. Calling Reddick a defensive liability is like calling swine flu a medical inconvenience. Same goes with opening the floor for Rondo against Alston; let Dwight Howard sink down and open up shorties for Perk and Big Baby. When you dictate the play, advantage you.

2) Go at the basket. In the first half we didn't and because of it we were down by 18 at the half, didn't shoot a single free throw, and the Magic committed only three team fouls. In the second half we did go at the hoop and drew fouls, were awarded free throws, and made legitimate scoring runs.

3) Intangibles, intangibles, intangibles. We have edges in playoff experience, game closers, and intensity. We're the defending champs, which doesn't score you any extra points on the scoreboard, but adds motivation and pride. And maybe the biggest edge we have is in team chemistry, although the five drunk yuppies singing "Just a Friend" in the Heineken commercial seem to have more chemistry than Magic starters. By the way that commercial kicks ass and sends a good message; they can't show it enough.

4) Take Big Baby out after three fouls with 11 seconds left in the half. It's that easy. And while we're here, no more big men wasting fouls on shoddy picks, reach ins, or soft and-one fouls.

5) Manage the runs. Call it the Pepto-Bismol strategy but this game was won by the team that was able to withstand the other team's offensive runs, and the Magic 3-point surges outlasted ours. It starts with Rondo being less haphazard with the ball when we're streaking and also means not getting frustrated if Pietrus and Alston hit a few buckets in a row (by the end of the game the Magic shot only 33% from downtown). Finally, it means taking advantage of a coach commonly dubbed a "Master of Panic" by his own players.

Let's stay positive. We were down 0-1 to the Bulls too, and by now we know that this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Crush of the Week: Lizzy Caplan

New feature here at Not Not Untitled, a little something I like to call Crush of the Week. This is a way to document all of the eye-catching girls I see on a weekly basis and immediately forget. You can call me a missionary because I am trying to spread the good word of a pretty face.

Meet Lizzy Caplan, or I should say re-meet Lizzy Caplan, the first ever documented crush of the week. You may remember Lizzy from role as Janis Ian from Mean Girls. Remember that premonition that something cute was hiding behind the gothed out potential lesbian? Well you were right and the proof lies in Lizzy's newest role as Casey in Starz's outstanding (and under-appreciated) new series Party Down.

Casey is a girl you could really get hung up on, with her girl next door looks, snarky charm, and fake attainability, and I have a feeling Lizzy doesn't have to strain to hard to pull that off (By the way, Party Down is downright hilarious and must watch for a Starz subscriber. Think The Office set at a Hollywood catering company, but actually funny). In interviews, she comes across as down to earth and low maintenance, traits hard to find individually in Hollywood women.

Some other credits: Marlena in JJ Abrams' Cloverfield and a brief role on HBO's True Blood last summer.

And a few more bonus points for Lizzy: Did you know she lives next to Audrina from The Hills? Also Wikipedia says that she's a reform Jew and that she named her cat, Lisa Turtle, all things I can deal with. In conclusion, Lizzy Caplan, we salute you as Crush of the Week, and maybe one day when we're dating we can look back at this whole thing and laugh.