The T-Wolves lost to the Magic by 13, but don’t go thinking it was because Nikola Pekovic couldn’t handle Dwight Howard. While Dwight spent much of the night parked on the bench with his 5 fouls, Pekovic was busy scoring 16 points and collecting 13 rebounds. Not only did Pekovic finish with better statistics than Dwight, who had just 11/7, but he easily out-performed him on both ends of the floor during each stint where the two went head-to-head.
I suppose the real numbers to be compared here are the ones that had been put up by the end of the third quarter, at which point Pekovic went to the bench until the last couple minutes of the game, which can be considered garbage time. Dwight had scored 8 points on 3-9, grabbed 5 rebounds, and collected 4 fouls. Pekovic had 12 points on 4-8, 8 boards, and only a single foul.
First of all, I want to talk about the excellent defense that Pekovic played, which really shows in the foul numbers. Nikola never once allowed Dwight to establish deep post position, and did so without grabbing or hacking. He forced Howard to take sweeping hook shots from about 10 feet, a little outside of his ideal range. One of ‘em went it, but another missed the rim entirely and a third bricked hard off of the iron. Pekovic’s lower-body strength essentially rendered Howard useless on offense. Those big guns and broad shoulders look wicked cool, Dwight, but they really aren’t doin’ shit when it comes to post play. It’s all about that base. That’s why Pek was able to pin Dwight deep, catch the ball, and spin off of him for a dunk on one play. That was one of Pek’s few scores in the post–he didn’t have the finest offensive game of his life–but it’s hard to say whether or not Howard had anything to do with that because the T-Wolves simply didn’t look to post him very often, and when they did they turned the ball over trying to make the entry pass (it was only Pek’s fault on maybe one occasion).
Either way, Pekovic easily played the better all-around game. Dwight got free for one alley-oop dunk. That’s was basically Pek’s lone folly, as Clyde Frazier would say. Dwight wasn’t even able to beat him up the floor for easy baskets, as Pekovic either out-ran him or stayed glued to his hip at all times. It was truly an impressive effort from the 26-year-old Serbian… exactly what I was hoping to see, but hardly what I expected. I mean, seriously, this was a guy not known for his D lookin’ kind of Chuck-Hayes-like against Dwight f@cking Howard. That’s pretty amazing. Think about it… who the hell holds Dwight to 8 points while fouling once? Hell, I don’t even think the aforementioned Chuck Hayes does that.
While most of the numbers posted by both Howard and Pek are solid indicators of how the match up went, Nikola’s 6-13 shooting doesn’t say sh!t about his offensive efficiency. I feel the need to point this out because at least three or four of those misses were tip shots that kept possessions alive, which were obviously good plays. I specifically remember one of his misses being a batted ball that sailed directly over the rim to Kevin Love, who put it in. There was another one where he battled with Dwight, volleyballed it to himself, and finally scored the deuce. You can see that play (along with a few others I’ve mentioned) in the following video…
I know I’m practically turning Pekovic into the NBA247365.COM version of Jeremy Lin, and for that I apologize, but… actually, you know what? I don’t apologize. F@ck that. Nikola Pekovic just got the best of Dwight Howard in his 20th career start. This is news… hell, probably even bigger news than I’m making it out to be considering Minnesota’s youth, talent, and the way Pek has played over the past few weeks. In the grand scheme of things I’m saying this is easily the most significant NBA happening of February 13th, 2012, and I doubt that anyone else is even gonna tell you about it ’cause Pek’s team lost by 10+. The thing about that, though? How about five Magic players not named Howard scoring in double figures? Hell, throw in Earl Clark with 8 off the bench as well; he came in and made a big impact in the first half.
So, Minnesota’s team defense sucked and they turned the ball over 100 times. Okay… but their 26-year-old center took Dwight Howard’s lunch money and bought the last pizza. The big picture, folks… the big picture. I’m telling you, too much more of this and it’s time to start discussing where Pekovic ranks amongst the NBA’s better centers.
Take heed of the Montenegrin Bulldozer.
