Washington Wizards’ Marcin Gortat Has Dominated Atlanta Hawks, Dwight Howard
Washington Wizards center Marcin Gortat used to back up Dwight Howard in Orlando, but now he’s dominated him in the NBA Playoffs.
Following last Wednesday’s win at home, the Washington Wizards gained a 2-0 series lead over the Atlanta Hawks. Washington lost their first game in Atlanta on Saturday, but the recipe for remains intact.
It’s no secret that the key to Washington winning this series is defense. That means limited turnovers, defending on each possession, and most importantly, grabbing those second chance points and 50/50 balls.
To beat Atlanta, it will be an inside job.
The pressure to win in that capacity will be on Marcin Gortat, whose territory is inside the paint. He has to be there not only for defensive rebounds, but for second chance opportunities.
Once the Hawks’ offense gets past the House of Guards, Gortat is the Wizards’ last line of defense to make sure there’s no easy layup or dunk. In other words, Gortat is the final stop on the way to the basket.
Prior to start of the series, Gortat had been up and down in his play. But once playoff action began, Gortat has been doing his job, hammering Atlanta on the glass.
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In the first game, Gortat had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. That included 6 offensive and 4 defensive rebounds.
His counterpart and former Orlando Magic teammate, Dwight Howard, also had 14 rebounds. But Gortat crushed Howard on the defensive side of the floor, limiting Howard to only 7 points.
Gortat did his job against the athletic big, not allowing him to get any easy inside buckets or his signature dunks. He has thoroughly dominated Howard.
Atlanta, seeing that Howard couldn’t match up to Gortat inside the paint in their first loss to the Washington Wizards, limited Howard to only 20 minutes of play in Game 2.
Again in Game 2, Gortat bodied the big man and Howard only had 6 points, going 3 for 5 from the field, and 7 rebounds. Howard sat on the bench the entire fourth quarter. Gortat, again, had a double-double with 14 points, 10 rebounds and 2 key blocks.
Gortat has been locked in this series, fearless inside the paint, and defensive-minded.
He has been playing bang-bang basketball against Howard in the post.
Not only has Gortat cleaned up the glass, he’s shut down Howard. Prior to the playoffs, Howard was averaging 13.5 points and 12.5 rebounds.
Gortat’s job is to make sure Howard’s job isn’t easy, and he’s done that in spades.
Atlanta simply doesn’t have an answer for the Polish Hammer.
On Friday, Howard believes he may have finally found the the answer. Howard told the Atlanta Constitutional Journal that:
"“When you talk about MMA fighters, you watch these guys closely, (and) no matter how hard they brawl, it’s all tactics,” Howard said Friday as the Hawks prepared for Game 3. “They just don’t run in the ring and throw punches. Some crazy guys do, and they get knocked out. The good fighters are precise when they hit.”"
Unclear about the “tactics,” Gortat ran circles around Howard and crashed him on the glass.
MMA, really, isn’t the difference. Gortat is outplaying Howard in the game he used to dominate – basketball.
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Known for their size and versatility, Atlanta’s production has been stunted by Gortat. Going forward, the Wizards are going to need their big man to continue playing at this level.