Woody if you're listening...

[Diesel]

Make Howard score all Orlando's points. Here's what we do... Play Tough man to man with JJ on Nelson, Bibby on Barnes or Reddick, and Marvin on Vince. NO SWITCHING!!! Throw Collins, Joe Smith, Zaza, and Horf at DH... That's 24 fouls in all. NO DOUBLE ON HOWARD... Then let's see just how far Howard can take them. First off, he won't play the whole game. 2nd, he's not Wilt, he won't score 100. Third, with 24 fouls, I think we can get him to miss 16 of those FTs.

When We double Howard, we give him too many outs. Somebody is left open and that's the key to Orlando's offense, they will pass until they find the open man. They can pass faster than we can switch. Therefore, we don't Double.

That's the defensive cure. The offensive cure is that we have to make shots and we have to force Howard to foul us. Somebody has to grab his sack.. tighten up, and attack the rim on offense. Charlotte had Crash and that's pretty much how they got Howard into foul trouble. Van Gundy believes that we will not employ a gameplan whereby we challenge Howard because like the rest of the league, he believes we are soft.

This is the time where we prove everybody wrong. This is the time when we take the slap in the mouth, turn back around and do damage. The best way we can do damage to Orlando is shut them down. When Howard is off the floor, they are a very defendable, beatable team. We have to get Howard off the floor. First we have to not Double, not Switch, make him beatus... then we have to slap him in the mouth and challenge him. If that means that Zaza plays Center and Teague plays PG, so be it. We need somebody who's not afraid to take it to the big man.

[MVP23]

I told them to play howard straight up in game 2 of the buck series. Good luck maybe they will listen to you.

[TheTruth]

We shouldn't be doubling Howard in the first place. ORL is really good at a couple things that just so happen to be a major part of their offense: 3 pt shooting and ball movement to the open man for easy scores. When you double Howard, it makes ORL's job much easier. Thing is, EVERYONE in the league knows this is how their offense is setup. And since we have no one who can legitimately guard him, Woodson thinks the best solution is to double Howard. Hardly anyone in this league can guard Howard...but we must play him straight up and force him to beat us. I don't care if he score 40 points...make him earn those 40 with a good number attempted at the line. It is better than him passing out to all those shooters for open jumper after jumper and easy shots. We see the result of what happens when we double him.

If Woodson comes back in Game 2 trying to double Howard, I will shake my damn head.

[coachx]

I told them to play howard straight up in game 2 of the buck series. Good luck maybe they will listen to you.

They did play Howard straight up. They hardly ever double teamed Howard last night.

You know what happened ? Both Howard and the Magic shooters feasted on our defense.

Diesel is right. The Hawks started the game taking a page out of Larry Brown's book. Collins has 3 fouls in 4 first quarter minutes. ZaZa had 5 fouls in 21 minutes. We were close at the end of 1 quarter but then we ran out of fouls and the Magic shooters got hot. I think the plan was for Horford to play conservatively on defense in hopes he could play aggressive in the 4th quarter. Too bad it was blow out by half time.

Now we may not have the horses to play that way. We may need ot pick our poison and double team Howard and allow the Magic to live and die by the 3.

Edited May 5, 2010 by coachx

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I agree. I think you make those Magic shooters come out hot and beat you. Don't let Dwight get into an offensive rhythm to start the game. If they miss, you now have the transition offense opportunities that the Hawks got in that 1st quarter.

Relying on the Hack-a-Howard philosophy is going to KILL our transition offense game, because we're not going to be able to get out and run off of missed or made FTs. We run off of missed shot attempts.

Now we can't give the shooters wide open looks, especially certain ones. But make those shooters come out hot and see if they can beat us.

Coachx is dead on. All of that hacking of Howard led to our big men racking up fouls by the boatloads, which probably took some of their aggressiveness away. And the fouling slowed the game down for us, eliminating transition opportunities.

If we're going to struggle in the halfcourt, then we must be able to get out and run off of missed shots, in order to generate offense.

Edited May 5, 2010 by northcyde

[JTB]

Man I like this gameplan alot!!! It makes perfect sense. What would be great is that the Hawks actually run this gameplan. I wish they would read what the fans have to say but you know how it is. I think we would have a chance if we play howard straight up! like desiel said he's not wilt and if we can get the man in foul trouble and he sits out the magic are completely beatable at all positions. The only thing I would like to add is that after every position wheather we score on the offense end or not, is to make sure our BIG MEN beats howard back down the court, so howard wont be able to easily position himself for an easy score plus this would bother him alot if he cant get to certain spots on the court he wants to get to then knowing howard he will probably start commiting stupid fouls. Anyways great gameplan lets see if the hawks actually do this next game causein all honesty howard cant beat us by himself im sorry but he's good but as long as he's not dunking all game him scoring on us the whole time just wont work! so yeah play his *ss straight up.

[Diesel]

They did play Howard straight up. They hardly ever double teamed Howard last night.

You know what happened ? Both Howard and the Magic shooters feasted on our defense.

Diesel is right. The Hawks started the game taking a page out of Larry Brown's book. Collins has 3 fouls in 4 first quarter minutes. ZaZa had 5 fouls in 21 minutes. We were close at the end of 1 quarter but then we ran out of fouls and the Magic shooters got hot. I think the plan was for Horford to play conservatively on defense in hopes he could play aggressive in the 4th quarter. Too bad it was blow out by half time.

Now we may not have the horses to play that way. We may need ot pick our poison and double team Howard and allow the Magic to live and die by the 3.

They have three guys shooting over 45% from three going into last night. It's obvious that their plan is to work off of the double. Either they swing to the open player (swish) or they bring a guy down the low when Howard has the ball. I saw,play Howard man on man and cut those two avenues of scoring out.

[Diesel]

Man I like this gameplan alot!!! It makes perfect sense. What would be great is that the Hawks actually run this gameplan. I wish they would read what the fans have to say but you know how it is. I think we would have a chance if we play howard straight up! like desiel said he's not wilt and if we can get the man in foul trouble and he sits out the magic are completely beatable at all positions. The only thing I would like to add is that after every position wheather we score on the offense end or not, is to make sure our BIG MEN beats howard back down the court, so howard wont be able to easily position himself for an easy score plus this would bother him alot if he cant get to certain spots on the court he wants to get to then knowing howard he will probably start commiting stupid fouls. Anyways great gameplan lets see if the hawks actually do this next game causein all honesty howard cant beat us by himself im sorry but he's good but as long as he's not dunking all game him scoring on us the whole time just wont work! so yeah play his *ss straight up.

Exactly. You got to make Howard run.Moreover, on offense, our guards and Smoove must stop shooting from outside and shoot from either the midrange or challenge Howard directly. You have to make him play defense.... It will also slow their transition opps because right now, they are running out on the long shot.

[99PROBL3MS]

I am on board. Maybe its just me, but I would rather make a team beat me shooting from 23ft and further than let D12 have a field day. All playing him str8 up did to us lastnight was get us into the penalty with 7 or 8 minutes left in each quarter. I wish we had a Perkins, Dalembert, KG, Shaq, Rasheed Wallace, Noah etc. that could play him str8 up but that isn't the case. It has to be one or the other in my opinion. Take the thinking out of it. Either you double him everytime or you play him straight up. I hope we double him and make them beat us from the outside.

[Diesel]

I am on board. Maybe its just me, but I would rather make a team beat me shooting from 23ft and further than let D12 have a field day. All playing him str8 up did to us lastnight was get us into the penalty with 7 or 8 minutes left in each quarter. I wish we had a Perkins, Dalembert, KG, Shaq, Rasheed Wallace, Noah etc. that could play him str8 up but that isn't the case. It has to be one or the other in my opinion. Take the thinking out of it. Either you double him everytime or you play him straight up. I hope we double him and make them beat us from the outside.

When we double him, it doesn't stop him. Nor does it stop him from being an offensive force. It helps him. Historically, Orlando has shown an ability to go away from Howard.

I found this in an article...

Here's Shaw's take on what the Lakers must continue to do in Game 2.

Defending Howard: "We'd like to play Howard as much as we can straight up," Shaw said.

That means Lakers center Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol have to be active on defense. Both must beat Howard to his spot and race down the court as much as possible and try to keep him from getting deep post position.

The Lakers will mix up their coverages on Howard. They'll send double teams from all angles at Howard, from Gasol and Odom at power forward to Trevor Ariza at small forward to guards Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher.

Dealing with Nelson: "Containing dribble penetration particularly with him is going to be critical for us," Shaw said of Nelson.

The Lakers want to slow Nelson down on the perimeter and not let him get into the teeth of their defense.

More diversified offense: Bryant scored 40 points in Game 1. He took 34 shots.

But the Lakers want Gasol, Bynum, Ariza, Odom and the rest to become factors as well on offense. "We'd like to keep [Orlando] off balance more by keeping other people involved," Shaw said.

and this....

The Lakers trailed by 12 points at halftime, and Bynum said of the Magic players: “They thought we were going to quit.”

Instead, the Lakers had the lead — largely because Dwight Howard was unable to get open to get the ball — by the time Bynum drew his fourth foul and went to the bench. Right before exiting, Bynum had scored the previous four Lakers points and served as a decoy under the hoop to draw defenders on a play where Pau Gasol looked past Bynum to an open Trevor Ariza for a 3-pointer. Earlier, Kobe Bryant had used Bynum’s pick as a shield to hit a 3-pointer.

There’s no doubt Bynum is expecting to win the championship — he slipped up a few times while we were talking and used verb tense to indicate it was a done deal — but he’ll have at least one more chance to apply what he has learned about defending Howard. This is how it basically goes:

1. Get downcourt before he can take his deep position.

2. It’s all about angles when you’re playing him.

3. Make him go up the lane or out toward the sideline when he’s trying to make a move.

4. Save some fouls for the end of the game.

“You have to limit his easy stuff,” said Bynum, who did exactly that as Howard mustered just one field goal on six attempts. “Make him make shots over the top of the defense, make him have to earn all of his buckets.”

[Endy9]

Hack a Wilt worked for the Knicks in 1973. Chamberlain was a poor free throw shooter at that stage of his career and got tired of being hacked by the 3-4 big bodies the Knicks threw at him. No layup was allowed without a hard foul. Of course in those days there was no 2 shoot foul and get possession of the ball.

[Dexmethylphenidate]

I agree with not doubling Dwight for obvious reasons and it worked in the 1st quarter last night. However, I don't agree to hacking him at any moment because those fouls rack up and they'll be in the bonus a lot faster. Just play him straight... put Collins on him (actually prefer him over Zaza) if Horford is in foul trouble.

Just like to beat the Hawks, Magic have to take out the fast break game and hope Woodson is still the coach... To beat the magic, you can either gameplan to takeout Dwight's game (doubling) or their three pointers. With the way they are shooting the 3 right now... taking out the 3 might be the way to go.

Edited May 6, 2010 by Playa

[JTB]

When we double him, it doesn't stop him. Nor does it stop him from being an offensive force. It helps him. Historically, Orlando has shown an ability to go away from Howard.

I found this in an article...

and this....

that is true as well. if you look back over the season the magic has gone away from howard even when he was dominating the paint, not sure why they do this but it's as if they prefer to pass the ball around the perimeter to find an open shot rather than to go through howard to open them up. Anyways they are known for not passing the ball or stop passing the ball howards way. So we have 3 options that could give our hawks a chance to win come tomorrow:

1.hope that they have one of those games that they stop passing the ball to howard (very possible of happening, seen them do it alot and it might not be the team descision could be gundy! gundy does like the 3 ball alot more than a average coach!)

2.play howard straight up and just challenge him the ways desiel has posted (our bigs got to be very aggressive and not commit stupid fouls on every position just challenge)

3.get howard fustrated whose known for commting stupid fouls when he gets mad and get him on the bench for the majority of the game like the bobcats did.

and to just add 4. play our gameplan all the way through and not just 1 quarter of the game but the whole game start to finish. Also i know we can score on this team so im not worried about that they should shoot much better than last game. what they could do is involve horford in the offensive gameplan and set him up for some good shots and make howard play defense on him and because horford is solid at the mid range this can get howard out the paint where smith and others can attack much easier!

we can win this series Hawks just got to gameplan and be the smarter players on the court! Go HAWKS!!!!

Edited May 6, 2010 by JTB

[exodus]

Woody in the huddle, game on the line......

[Diesel]

that is true as well. if you look back over the season the magic has gone away from howard even when he was dominating the paint, not sure why they do this but it's as if they prefer to pass the ball around the perimeter to find an open shot rather than to go through howard to open them up. Anyways they are known for not passing the ball or stop passing the ball howards way. So we have 3 options that could give our hawks a chance to win come tomorrow:

1.hope that they have one of those games that they stop passing the ball to howard (very possible of happening, seen them do it alot and it might not be the team descision could be gundy! gundy does like the 3 ball alot more than a average coach!)

2.play howard straight up and just challenge him the ways desiel has posted (our bigs got to be very aggressive and not commit stupid fouls on every position just challenge)

3.get howard fustrated whose known for commting stupid fouls when he gets mad and get him on the bench for the majority of the game like the bobcats did.

and to just add 4. play our gameplan all the way through and not just 1 quarter of the game but the whole game start to finish. Also i know we can score on this team so im not worried about that they should shoot much better than last game. what they could do is involve horford in the offensive gameplan and set him up for some good shots and make howard play defense on him and because horford is solid at the mid range this can get howard out the paint where smith and others can attack much easier!

we can win this series Hawks just got to gameplan and be the smarter players on the court! Go HAWKS!!!!

I too would like to see Collins earn his money tonight. I don't mean by Hacking. When i said we have 24 fouls with our bigs, I wasn't talking about arbitrary hacking, I was talking about the fact that we have 4 bigs who we can use on Dwight. Our bigs have to race down the lane, beat him to his spot, and push him out of his spot. The less doubling we do, the better, but I realize that at times, it will be advantageous to double him (if we have a clear defensive advantage).

When I was in Middle School, we had this OL man on our football team... He was about 6'2" 210 his name was Monk. Monk was a great blocker. The thing was that at 6'2" he was huge compared to all the competition we faced. I remember one year, we played against the HS JV team (because we were really good). Our bread and butter on offense was to run the sweep around Monk's side or to run the dive on Monk's side or to option to Monk's side because Monk could always block any lineman or linebacker that they put in front of him. Well, the HS JV team wasn't that good and they wasn't that much bigger than us, but the guy who played in front of Monk was about Monk's size (actually a little Smaller). He may have been 6'0 200. Anyway, from the first whistle to the end of the game, this guy just drove Monk whereever he wanted to drive him. Left to right, into the running back. Everywhere. I remember (will never forget) my coach saying " What's wrong Monk, You can't block guys that are your size?"

Dwight Howard against us is like Monk. He's very good, but Horf is just too undersized to make a big difference for Howard. I would like to matchup Howard with Collins and Zaza as much as possible. Not that we will stop him with those guys, but those guys will make Howard shoot over them. They have the strength to push him out of his position (so does Horf). But they make his passing angles a little harder with their height.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Collins shouldn't even set foot in the game, unless both Horford and Zaza are in foul trouble. Zaza is the guy that has historically had at least some success vs Howard. His active body on both ends of the floor at least makes Howard work a little bit harder to keep him off the boards. Collins nor Zaza are going to stop Howard. But Zaza is probably more likely to pick up some fouls vs Howard, especially battling for rebounds.

If Collins is used again, I hope he proves me wrong. But dude is basically a garbage basketball player, and has been for a while now.