Lakers shut down Howard, and his teammates can't help

LOS ANGELES -- In Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, Dwight Howard destroyed the Cleveland Cavaliers in the low post to the tune of 40 points on 14-of-21 shooting. All series long, the Cavs had no answer for Howard.

Game 1 of the NBA Finals was an entirely different story. Howard was ineffective in the post against the Lakers, making just one of six shots from the field and scoring 12 points as the Magic got trounced at Staples Center, 100-75.

The most telling stat of the night was points in the paint, where the Lakers outscored the Magic 56-22. With their perimeter shooting, Orlando typically gets a low percentage of their points in the paint, but 22 was its lowest total of the postseason.

Early on, the Magic didn't go to Howard in the post. And when they did, after a timeout late in the first quarter, he picked up his second foul for barreling through Pau Gasol. That put him on the bench for the next eight minutes.

His teammates tried to get him the ball down low after he returned midway through the second period, but that task was difficult all night.

With two 7-footers on their front line, the Lakers can come at Howard with more length than any other team in the league. Even if Andrew Bynum left Howard to help on a screen-and-roll, Gasol was there to help out.

In general, the Lakers crowded Howard down low. When he got the ball, the defense sagged and didn't give him space to operate. When he tried to make a move in the paint, there were extra bodies waiting. After a lefty hook on a move across the lane early in the first quarter, he went the final 46 minutes of the game without a bucket.

"They really sat in my lap and they forced me to pass it out for guys to shoot," Howard said afterward, "and they mixed it up."

The Lakers also came with a double-team on occasion. But it wasn't from the direction that Howard was accustomed to. "They forced me baseline, and when I tried to turn baseline, they had somebody waiting right there," Howard said. "I just wasn't patient enough to pick it apart."

Howard kicked the ball out when it got crowded down low, but his teammates couldn't take advantage of the extra attention put on their center. The Magic shot just 29.9 percent from the field, their lowest percentage in 102 games this season. And their 23 field goals were the second-lowest total in NBA Finals history.

With Howard's teammates shooting so poorly, the Lakers had no reason to change their sag-and-recover game plan.

"He couldn't really get much space to play one-on-one," said Hedo Turkoglu, who made his first three shots, but missed his final eight. "We have to do a better job of making shots to give him some space. Then he can be dominant."

Part of Howard's success against the Cavs was his ability to establish position under the basket in transition. But the Lakers got back quickly and didn't allow the Magic a single Game 1 fastbreak point, just the third time that has happened all season.

The Lakers also hacked Howard when necessary. He attempted six shots, but went to the line 16 times. Even when he did get good post position, they didn't allow him anything easy. They even fouled him with a 24-point lead and less than two minutes to go in the game.

"He didn't get dunks," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said, "and that's a big part of his game."

The defensive end of the floor was an issue for the Magic, too. Going forward, they can't give Kobe Bryant, who had 40 points, space coming off the screen-and-roll. But Bryant's points are far from the whole story. LeBron James averaged 38.5 against the Magic in the conference finals, and they survived just fine.

In order to get back into this series, the Magic will need to execute better offensively. They need to continue to work their offense through Howard, and make the Lakers' defense pay for giving him extra attention.

"We are going to have to find a way," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said, "to get the ball inside more efficiently and be able to play out of that more efficiently.

If they don't, this series will be over quickly.

NBA.com's John Schuhmann is covering the Orlando Magic through the NBA Finals. If you have a question or comment for him, send him an e-mail. You can also follow him on twitter.