The Orlando Magic got a win at Golden State last night, and Dwight Howard got the most jacked up stat line of the young season, if not the young decade. A crazy quadruple double of sorts: 44 minutes. 45 points. 23 Rebounds. 39 Freethrows. I said 39. That busted the all time record held by Wilt Chamberlain. Look, Wilt had some crazy records. 100 points in a game. And 20,000 conquests come to mind, but even the Stilt never took 39 throws in a night. Shaquille O'Neal never even got busted up like that even back in his Hack of Shaq days.
Photos: Superman
And as for why Mark Jackson would have his guys do that, why they wouldn't just man up and D up. He says, they tried. "Think about when we didn't foul him. It was dunks, hooks, at the rim. He's a great player. And he's a bad free throw shooter." Word. I see him working. They figured Dwight's about 60 percent from the free throw line, and about 100 percent anywhere closer... and the only thing in the Arena with any chance of slowing down the big man was the front of the rim. So they put him on the line.
Look, there's only so many times Coaches can stand on the sideline and say 'Momma, there goes that man!' before he orders his guys to hack him up. Jackson would rather look bad and win, than look good and lose. Which he did anyway. But not as badly as the beat writers who had to stomach the Stan Van Gundy comedy hour after the game. The Master of Panic was churning out the gold, suggesting that Orlando should have started hacking Warrior center Andris Biedrins every time as well. That could have been fun. We could've just walked up and down for a few minutes and see who makes the first free throw. But we could've just saved everybody and said,"'Let's let them shoot it at the same basket!" Crickets. The Master of Panic will never be called the Master of Punch lines.
