Player of the Game - Wizards at Magic (3/19)

[doclinkin]

Jamison brought us offense when no one could score, Caron came up clutch with last second shots and late defense on the Turk. But I give it to Haywood for the comeback game, dominating Howard after last game when he crushed us.

Tawn said in postgame that EJ's game plan was for Haywood to redeem himself and hold his own against Holy Howard so's not to let too many of their outside shooters get loose. Now granted Hedo got loose like an Andray Blatche columbus circle two for one special, but boy did Big Wood hold his own today.

1. Wood.
1A. Tawn
3. Caron.

[BruceO]

I definately go with haywood, I'm not looking at the numbers especially those Jamison put up. Truthfully we didnt win because of our offensive effort, we won because of what we did defensively, what deshawn did defending their guards and the key steals he came up with, Haywood being the key part of what happened tactically during this game. Howard was in foul trouble the entire game, and Dwight could not make a post shot against haywood. Yet Dwight is the top center in the L. Jamison was supposed to have that game he had, the way he got it is alright but I hated it initially when he was chucking at the beginning of the game, he had alot of shots that made me pissed that our PF was camping out at the three point line. OTOH what he did later offensively helped us, but if you were another team and you wanted to beat orlando based on this game who would you take for that one game? The answer would be Haywood because he outplayed according to some one of the best centers the league has seen

[Macker]

Gotta be Haywood. If Howard goes off like he normally does than the Wiz lose. Hold him to 3 points, and we had a window to win. Simple as that. AJ put up nice stats again, but Wood was the difference maker last night.

Looks like Eddie Jordan thinks so too:

Howard sat much of the game in foul trouble, finishing with three points and 14 rebounds. The All-Star turned the ball over four times and shot 1-for-6, failing to score from the field until the fourth quarter. Wizards coach Eddie Jordan credited 7-foot Brendan Haywood with shutting Howard down.

[hands11]

I'm coping out with the co MVP award. No way to separate AJ and Woodshaq for the award.

If you figure AJ is good for 20 and 10 a game then he was +11

But Woodshaq logged 33 mins and was the primary player involved in leading Howard to a season low in points and basically neutralized him which helped open things up which helped AJ get those pts.

Plus Haywood hit some 3x key outside shoots which shows how his game is developing. How dangerous is Haywood going to be when he establishes that he can hit that shot 40% of the time? He has been working on it a lot and this year he has been hitting it more.

Haywood is the most under rated talent on this team. He is already valuable but he isn't done adding to his game. I think Haywood is going to be in the league a long time. He is slowly turning into a Robert Parish which is a comparison I heard someone project his style as about 3 or more years ago.

You can see it coming together. Little baby hooks. 7-10 footer. Long. Rebounds. Dunks. Blocks.

People wanted to get ride of Haywood several years ago and even this off-season. They said we needed a center. I always thought that was kind of insane considering Haywoods skills, his upside and contract. He just needed minutes and for the team to give him opportunities.

I still don't think we lean on him enough to score in the post. The best defense against a great post player is putting them on the bench. In our case, it was often done to us by choice but in tonight case we did it to the other team with fouls.

After AJ and Haywood I give the remaining awards to the coaches and team. EJ got everyone in the game and did it early so the energy of the healthy legs was there for D. Everyone did something to help and AD and CB toughed it out playing injured again.

Great team win. There is no big 3 in TEAM

[Soup's Uncle]

El Capitawn!!!!

[MDStar]

My vote goes for AJ. Just awesome tonight!

[Severn Hoos]

According to the box score, Howard got 0 offensive rebounds. Wow. Just one board & putback would have meant the difference in this game. I'll go with the big fella.

[Tiago]

Brendan 'kryptonite' Haywood...

Why they leave guys like Bogans and Hedo open???damn

[nate33]

Tough call between Haywood and Jamison. If you pick one, if feels like you are dissing the other. It's a shame because both players were indispensable.

I'll go with Haywood only because he hasn't gotten a POTG in a while whereas Jamison has been racking them up with regularity. Let's reward the big man for getting the job done in the paint.

1. Haywood
2. Jamison
3. Butler

[JWizmentality]

Haywood with the Mega comeback!!!!

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Tough call between Haywood and Jamison. If you pick one, if feels like you are dissing the other. It's a shame because both players were indispensable.

I'll go with Haywood only because he hasn't gotten a POTG in a while whereas Jamison has been racking them up with regularity. Let's reward the big man for getting the job done in the paint.

1. Haywood
2. Jamison
3. Butler

I agree with all of this except you gotta give B. Cook props as OUR 3rd player of the game. That guy is Arvis bad. His shot jacking just kills Orlando, which has a really formidable starting five and not much beyond that.

[yungal07]

Wood wins!!!! The boxscore lied this time.

[milesfd1]

I attended the game and can tell you that the Orlando fans near me were more impressed with Haywood than anyone else. Wood was a monster in person. He out hustled and out muscled everyone in the building. Two people asked me why Eddie was taking him out saying he was having an awesome game. When I told them it was because he was TALL they were perplexed. Also in the fourth it loked like Randy Ayers asked why Eddie took out Wood and Eddie to my surprise quickly reinserted Haywood. Wood was by far the MVP. Had Antawn not settled for long range jumpers in the first quarter, he could have had 40.