Let this be a lesson for people in the future wondering about asking LeBron James if anything that Dwight Howard does this season is something “special.” Because as LeBron himself reminded reporters last night, the subject of Howard having “special” performances is an issue that is uniquely personal to him.
While the Los Angeles Lakers snapped a 14-game road win-streak and a seven-game streak overall last night in Indiana, Howard had his best offensive game of the season with 20 points on a perfect 10 for 10 from the field.
But as you NBA historians will remember and James noted, Howard’s most special performance came at the cost of LeBron having a showdown that will always go down as one of the missed connections in NBA Finals history. Howard’s incredible 2009 Eastern Conference Finals kept LeBron out of the Finals and away from an NBA Finals showdown with Kobe Bryant.
LeBron James if he saw something special in Dwight Howard tonight as the Lakers big man went 10-for-10 from the field tonight: pic.twitter.com/ZY2HltSG9y
— TheLakersReview (@TheLakersReview) December 18, 2019
Ok so just to recap, LeBron is speaking in a little bit of a hyperbole here but the point stands that Dwight kept him from a meeting with Kobe in the Finals. Dwight’s actual averages were 25.8 points, 13 rebounds, three assists and 1.2 blocks per game. But this is why I’m here.
Oddly enough Howard only had seven total blocks in that series, it probably just felt like more since the Cavs had little success attacking him at the basket. LeBron may have also gotten somewhat confused with his own numbers in that series which sounded a lot more like the ones he attributed to Dwight of 35.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, eight assists as well as over one steal and one block per game in the six-game series.
Howard and the Magic played great against the Cavs but fell to the Lakers in five games in the 2009 NBA Finals as Kobe Bryant won his first championship after parting ways with Shaquille O’Neal.
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