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I'm a Raptors fan, but I've been following the Lakers since Nash came aboard. I'm not too familiar with the ins and outs of the Lakers, so can someone please explain to me why in the world you guys leave Dwight in there during Hack-A-Dwight? It's been so painful to watch the last few games as this goes on. Why not just bring Jordan Hill in for a few minutes? And once Pau gets back, why not have him be in there instead? I know he's been struggling, but he can't be as bad on the floor as Dwight was on the line.

As for Dwight's free throw shooting...WTF...how is he so bad? The guy needs to focus on the rim a little bit and visualize his shot before he shoots it. He's no where near good enough to just throw the ball at rim and hope something good happens. He doesn't have that unconscious competence and muscle memory. He needs to focus. But I digress...

The main point of this thread: why leave Dwight in the game during Hack-A-Dwight?

his free throw misses are pissing me off but I think it's a learning curve for dwight. I expect him to improve his free throws as the season progresses

DEEP3CL wrote:Because you don't do that to an All Star player. That scheme along didn't really bring them back. They started the hack job at 3:18, so they only had a minute and 18 seconds to do it.

Knowing Howard he would probably throw a tantrum and moan over it, even if its clear its costing this team games.

Its on Mike D'Antoni really, though. If the game is relatively close, teams are implement that strategy brilliantly. It disrupts the Lakers offense once they back off the Hack-A-Dwight and gives the opposition to make their run. If I were opposing teams, I would do this every time I play this team until MDA learns not to keep Dwight in closing games.

zade831 wrote:his free throw misses are pissing me off but I think it's a learning curve for dwight. I expect him to improve his free throws as the season progresses

If by improvement you mean up his percentage up over 50%. That's still horrible and won't scare teams off the Hack-a-Dwight crap if he's in there.

Because D'Antoni is a new coach of the Lakers. Howard has way more power over him. He could get him fired anytime he want.

the glare on your avatar is a son of a gun

Honestly, I heard one of the LA reporters straight up ask D'Antoni why he leaves Dwight in when teams use this strategy on him, and his answer was pretty stupid. It makes perfect sense... if you're a winner... you sub in your best free throw shooters at the end of the game, especially if you know the other team is using this strategy. He sounds like a fan boy coaching these stars. It's like he's trying to appease them... doesnt care about the result. I honestly think Bickerstaff is a better coach than D'Antoni... he knows how to let these guys just go out and play. Nothing complex... just go out and play.

As a Raptor fan, I'm hoping you guys give us Pau for Calderon and Bargnani... but as a fan of the NBA... I have to say... D'Antoni's the problem... not Pau. Like many others have said... Phil or Shaw would've brought success to the team... D'Antoni is not good.

ballislife wrote:Honestly, I heard one of the LA reporters straight up ask D'Antoni why he leaves Dwight in when teams use this strategy on him, and his answer was pretty stupid. It makes perfect sense... if you're a winner... you sub in your best free throw shooters at the end of the game, especially if you know the other team is using this strategy. He sounds like a fan boy coaching these stars. It's like he's trying to appease them... doesnt care about the result. I honestly think Bickerstaff is a better coach than D'Antoni... he knows how to let these guys just go out and play. Nothing complex... just go out and play.

As a Raptor fan, I'm hoping you guys give us Pau for Calderon and Bargnani... but as a fan of the NBA... I have to say... D'Antoni's the problem... not Pau. Like many others have said... Phil or Shaw would've brought success to the team... D'Antoni is not good.

this

I wondered the same thing until I saw Dwight blocked shots in clutch moments tonight.

Relatively speaking, Dwight wasn't this bad at the FT line before the start of last year. During the lockout off season, he trained with the FT "master", Ed Palubinskas. IMO, that's what ultimately caused a dip in Dwight's FT%.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_cg08SXrQ0[/youtube]


That name might sound familiar, because the Lakers hired him in 00-01 to coach Shaq with his FTs.

From wiki

Palubinskas took a position as shooting coach to Shaquille O'Neal with the Los Angeles Lakers for the entire 2000-01 NBA season. Shaq's improved Free throw shooting helped lead the Lakers to the 2001 NBA Championship. He went from 38.3% to 69.4% with Ed's tutelage. Well worth the NBA championship ring they won together.

dwight has to start hitting them at a 60% clip, no other way around it. i agree with mike d, i wouldn't take howard out either. he is by far your best defender, you can't just be forced into taking him out. mike d isn't trying to appease howard by keeping him in, he's not letting him off the hook.

anyway, the lakers were up 13 going into the 4th. in the 3 or so game minutes that the rockets started fouling, they only made up 2 pts. when it started they were up 5, when it ended they were up 3. people really overblowing the effectiveness of hack-a-howard.

Mark Willard @Mark_T_Willard

The Rockets were down by 13 in the 4th. They made up only 2 points of that deficit during the "Hug-A-Howard" stretch.

if howard hits his FT's at a 60% clip, they break even, which given how the rest of the quarter went, is a huge win for the lakers during that stretch.

I think that tweet is pretty inaccurate. Just from my memory they stopped when they got an and-1 play and an open 3 to close the gap. We did not have an offensive possession during that stretch obviously.

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:I think that tweet is pretty inaccurate. Just from my memory they stopped when they got an and-1 play and an open 3 to close the gap. We did not have an offensive possession during that stretch obviously.

its accurate. check the espn play by play. score is 97-93 when the first intentional foul occurs at 3:17. score is 102-100 after howard knocks down 2 FT's at 2:09, the last intentional foul.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/playbypla ... 6&period=4

Yeah that part was a blur to me, it did throw us totally out of rhythm on offense though and more importantly if we want to be an uptempo team that basically wastes possessions and gets the opposition to dictate the pace.

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:Yeah that part was a blur to me, it did throw us totally out of rhythm on offense though and more importantly if we want to be an uptempo team that basically wastes possessions and gets the opposition to dictate the pace.

not sure how much rhythm there was, from the 6:11 mark when kobe and howard both checked in, kobe took every single shot until hack-a-howard started. in fact, aside from the MWP miss with 1 second left, every single recorded field goal attempt in the 4th quarter after kobe checked in, was by kobe.

deNIEd wrote:

DEEP3CL wrote:Because you don't do that to an All Star player. That scheme along didn't really bring them back. They started the hack job at 3:18, so they only had a minute and 18 seconds to do it.

Grown man responding with a damn smiley......it's obvious you NEVER played an ounce of basketball in your life on a meaningful level. I stand by what I said, you don't pull All Star type players. Nor do you show a lack of confidence in them during tough times.

You felt the need to snatch this quote of mine off the GB, you jock the hell out of me. Get a life.

DEEP3CL wrote:

deNIEd wrote:

DEEP3CL wrote:Because you don't do that to an All Star player. That scheme along didn't really bring them back. They started the hack job at 3:18, so they only had a minute and 18 seconds to do it.

Grown man responding with a damn smiley......it's obvious you NEVER played an ounce of basketball in your life on a meaningful level. I stand by what I said, you don't pull All Star type players. Nor do you show a lack of confidence in them during tough times.

You felt the need to snatch this quote of mine off the GB, you jock the hell out of me. Get a life.

Phil never pulled Shaq out? and is Pau no longer an All-Star level player? Because D'Antoni sure as hell pulled Pau out a few games ago and didn't sub him back him because he wanted to "win the ball game."

dockingsched wrote:

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:Yeah that part was a blur to me, it did throw us totally out of rhythm on offense though and more importantly if we want to be an uptempo team that basically wastes possessions and gets the opposition to dictate the pace.

not sure how much rhythm there was, from the 6:11 mark when kobe and howard both checked in, kobe took every single shot until hack-a-howard started. in fact, aside from the MWP miss with 1 second left, every single recorded field goal attempt in the 4th quarter after kobe checked in, was by kobe.

You could tell from the 1st qtr that tonight was Kobe mode night.

30,000 PTS COMING UP SOON!!!

dwight needs to learn rick barry style free throws aka the granny shot, every freethrow he shoots is long, he needs a shot that will just die on the rim,

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bqa-Hw0TpY[/youtube]
rick tell a story about how he asked shaq to try underhanded freethrows and shaq said he would rather shoot 0% than shoot freethrows underhanded, which barry did not like nor would any other basketball player trying to win games, apparently shaq broke his wrist when he was younger which affected his shooting, the story is in the very beginning, the reason i bring this up is because dwight is naturally left handed but he shoots (poorly) with his right, granny freethrows are with both hands and its a very soft shot, i would try them if i were him,