“My free throws are not an issue” fumes Lakers’ centre Dwight Howard: NBA News
Dwight Howard believes his woes from the free throw lines are not to blame for the Los Angeles Lakers’ recent 105-107 loss to the Houston Rockets. The centre, unarguably the best in the league, missed eight free throws out of 16
in the game and five out of those misses came in the final period.
“We allowed them to get back into the game. It wasn’t just about free throws. … It wasn’t just about me missing free throws toward the end. We’ve got to do a better job defending.”
Howard does have a point because the Lakers were lacklustre on the defensive end of the court in the second half, allowing 34 points to be scored in the last quarter. But they were up against the Rockets, who have their offence
paced by the ‘Bearded One’ James Harden, and have been one of the top offensive sides so far. Under that scenario, the little things certainly matter in crunch situations and Howard’s misses were certainly the biggest of those little things.
The player should actually be practicing his free throws rather than making statements, as this is not the first time the Lakers have lost a close game with Howard missing out a number of free throws. It was only two nights back
when Orlando Magic played hack-a-Howard and the centre kept on missing shots from the line.
Despite all the bashing though, he remains confident that he deserves a place in the lineup during clutch periods and feels there is no reason for Mike D’ Antoni, who is 4-5 since he took over the Lakers, to put him out of the
rotation.
“Why should he take me out?” Howard asked, indignantly. “Like I said, the more I continue to practice, my free throws are going to fall. But there’s other things you can do on the court to help your team. It’s not just about the
free throws.”
Howard’s scoring from the free throw line has dipped rather than improve over the course of his 8 year long NBA career. He shot 67.1 percent from the free throw line in his rookie year and is now averaging 46.8% from the foul line.
Ironically, this percentage is lower than the Lakers winning ratio, 44.4 percent at the moment.
Despite the shooting woes, Howard retains the full backing of his coach;
“If you take him out now, then you’ll be taking out a guy that’s going to be your franchise player all the time,” said Mike D’ Antoni said when put up with question of taking Howard out of the rotation when team start hacking him
to the foul line.
The Lakers can’t really afford to do it this season, because if they do, they might not be able to land Dwight’s long term signatures come the next summer.
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