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Dwight Howard posterizes Kristaps Porzingis: 'I saw [him] jump. The rest is history'
New York Knicks power forward/center Kristaps Porzingis took many NBA observers by surprise early in his rookie season by showing both a nose for the ball when crashing the offensive glass and a bit of a flair for the dramatic, throwing down putback dunks on the heads and shoulders of several well-established veteran big men who seemed not to believe that the lanky Latvian would sneak up from behind and come hunting for highlights. The plays made for some killer Vines, gave opponents something to think about and inspired new hope in Knicks fans who have suffered through a rough couple of seasons.
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And yet, even as Porzingis has continued to impress, averaging 13.7 points and 9.3 rebounds in 28 minutes per game for the Knicks, ranking seventh in the NBA in total rebounds and steals, placing third among rookies in Player Efficiency Rating and leading all first-year players in ESPN's Real Plus-Minus metric, which "estimates each player's impact on his team's net efficiency," it was only a matter of time until somebody turned the tables on the 7-foot-3 freshman and put him on the business end of a big-time finish. Kristaps' number came up Sunday night, courtesy of Dwight Howard of the Houston Rockets:
The lesson: maybe you're "not Shawn Bradley," but that doesn't mean you're not going to play him on TV from time to time.
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Howard's humongous flush off an alley-oop feed from Marcus Thornton came early in overtime at Madison Square Garden, helping Houston continue to build momentum after erasing a 14-point deficit in less than eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter to force overtime. While Porzingis did get the bucket back on the other end, working his way toward a layup that gave him 20 points for the fourth time in the last seven games, the Rockets soon went up five on a pair of buckets by Thornton, who scored all 18 of his points after the third quarter — including a huge 3-pointer with 32 seconds remaining in the fourth to knot the score at 101 and set the stage for the extra frame.
After a Knicks club playing without star forward Carmelo Anthony, who sat with an illness, scratched back to even things up at 111 behind baskets from Arron Afflalo (a game-high 31 points on 13-for-19 shooting, seven rebounds, four assists) and Langston Galloway, Howard once again put his muscle to use, setting a crunching (and, shall we say, fluid and free-flowing) screen on Afflalo to free swingman Trevor Ariza for a huge 3-pointer:
The long ball splashed through, giving Ariza 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting and giving Houston a 114-111 lead. Several Knicks attempts at a final-minute tie would go awry, as the Rockets held on for a 116-111 win that improved them to 7-10 on the season. Houston has now won consecutive games for the first time since the four-game streak that prompted many to believe its season-opening struggles had subsided; that run was, of course, followed by a four-game losing skid that cost Kevin McHale his job.
But while interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff talked up Houston's come-from-behind victory as "a lesson in perseverance," the postgame buzz centered on the evil that Howard — who finished with 14 points, six rebounds and two assists in 30 1/2 minutes of work — did to Porzingis in their meeting above the rim to start OT. From Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle:
The Rockets forced their way back into the game, doing just enough to allow Marcus Thornton's last-minute 3-pointer to force overtime and for Trevor Ariza's late 3 to put them in front to stay. Dwight Howard even slammed home an overtime alley-oop that Thornton said showed "the Dwight of old, the slam-dunk Dwight." [...]
Once in another overtime, they took their first lead since the first quarter when Thornton tested how high Howard could climb. Howard's slam on Kristaps Porzingis did not seem possible through most of the night but inspired the Knicks rookie to say, "Nasty dunk."
"When we drew up the play, Marcus said he was going to throw it up to the roof," Howard said. "He said, 'You better go get it.' I tried to do whatever I can. I saw Porzingis jump. The rest is history."
After 11 NBA seasons and multiple injuries that have caused him to miss time in recent years and seemed to sap some of the awesome athleticism that once made him arguably the most dominant physical specimen in the game, you — and apparently Porzingis — might've believed that Howard's hops were history, too. Evidently, though, when the situation calls for it, the soon-to-be-30-year-old can still leap tall buildings, and even taller Latvians, in a single bound.
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For his part, the 20-year-old Porzingis didn't shy away from the role of the vanquished, but did express an eagerness to change the result of the confrontation the next time around, according ESPN.com's Ian Begley:
[...] Porzingis didn’t seem to mind talking about the play at all late Sunday night. He actually had a not-so-subtle message for Howard while discussing it.
“He dunked on me; he got me. I was asking [my teammates], ‘When is the next game against Houston? I want to get him back,’” Porzingis said with a grin. "You know, it happens. He’s a great player. I’m looking forward to playing next time against him." [...]
[...] one of the few positives on Sunday was how Porzingis reacted to getting dunked on.
Here's why: the Knicks rookie has been celebrated far and wide early this season for aspects of the his play that are measurable. Things like his height, his offensive-rebound rate, his blocks-per-48 minutes all have fed into the fans' fascination with Porzingis.
But the Knicks and others around the NBA are also impressed with some things that you can't measure -- Porzingis' confidence, his competitive nature, his resolve.
Or, as Howard himself put it before Sunday’s game, “I like where his head’s at.”
Here's betting that Howard didn't much mind where Porzingis' head was at after the game, either.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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