Dwight Howard flashed a devilish smile, bowed his head embarrassingly and admitted he'd never before heard of Nate Thurmond, one of the few players in NBA history to compile consecutive 20-point, 20-rebound performances in the playoffs.
To his credit, the 22-year-old Howard wasn't born when Thurmond was still relevant in the NBA. But after Howard delivered a dominating 29-point, 20-rebound, three-block effort that crushed the spirits of the Toronto Raptors, Howard admitted that the name of another NBA legend has been on his squarely mind lately.
As in Cleveland's LeBron James.
"It's the playoffs and this is where you make your name," said Howard, who swatted a Chris Bosh shot with 25 seconds to play and contested another in the final seconds to preserve Orlando's 104-103 Game 2 defeat of Toronto.
"LeBron did it last year and got Cleveland to the Finals. I'm just trying to do the best I can every night to help my team win. "(Magic assistant coach) Pat (Ewing) is always on me about giving my best effort every second. He pushes me to another level every night when I feel like I can't do anything else so we can keep on winning."
Like James, who led a pedestrian Cleveland team through the Eastern Conference playoffs and shockingly to the NBA Finals last June, Howard is trying to single-handedly will the upstart Magic through the playoffs this spring. Like James last season, Howard is now in his fourth NBA season.
Howard was a one-man wrecking ball in Sunday's Game 1 with 25 points, 22 rebounds and five blocked shots, lifting Orlando to an easy 114-100 victory.
And then, remarkably, he was even better Tuesday night. Better as in the game's most dominant big man. Better as in the most freakishly talented 270-pounder since Shaq roamed these parts 12 years ago.
All Howard did Tuesday was make 12 of 17 shots with a good portion of them coming on rim-rattling dunks. The youngest rebounding champion in league history (22 years, 130 days) grabbed another 20 rebounds, seven of them coming off the offensive glass. And for every shot he swatted (three), he either goal-tended that many (three) or altered completely (at least a dozen).
Complete domination is the goal now for a focused and locked in Howard.
"One of the things that coach (Stan Van Gundy) and (assistant coach) Pat (Ewing) have put in my head is to dominate games on both ends of the court,'' said Howard, following just the sixth playoff game of his four-year NBA career.
"Since the last game (on Sunday) the only thing on my mind when I go to sleep at night, wake up in the morning and hit the gym with the guys is to dominate. For us to keep winning, I have to do that."
Chris Bosh gave Howard every ounce he had Tuesday night, pouring in 29 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and handing out six assists. But at the end of the night, one in which Bosh missed two shots made tougher by Howard's massive wingspan, he sighed at how he'd never been knocked to the floor more than in this series against the player with the Adonis-like physique.
The two all-stars are close friends, having first met in 2002 when Howard was a senior in high school in Atlanta and Bosh was a freshman at Georgia Tech. And they became tighter two years ago while playing for Team USA.
Howard bought dinner for Bosh and played him in video games for hours when Toronto came to Orlando in March. Howard said it's not a problem for the two buddies to separate their friendship when they are taking turns knocking each other silly on the basketball court.
"We can stay friends because basketball is only a part of our lives; it's not our whole life,'' he said. "We know how to separate the two when we get on the court and we understand that for 48 minutes you can't be friends. But when the game is over we can still be friends."
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