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NBA FINALS: MAGIC v LAKERS

June 10, 2009

Dwight Howard

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Practice Day

Q. You've taken a lot of heat over the years for free-throw shooting problems, but over the course of the playoffs, whatever the percentage is, you've been swishing a lot of key free throws down the stretch. How much pride and satisfaction do you take in doing that? And how does that compare to the thrill of a big block or a big dunk?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, I understand the importance of trying to make the free throws, especially coming down the stretch in a game. I just try to go up there and shoot them. I think the thing that I've been telling you guys for the past couple of years is it's more mental than anything with me. When I'm thinking positive, when I get up there and just shoot, I tend to make it more. And when I'm thinking too much, I tend to miss.
I understand that especially the playoffs, every possession counts, and I know that team is going to foul me instead of letting me dunk the ball so I can go up there and make free throws.

Q. What have you done in the past couple of months or weeks to improve the way you have?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I just continue to shoot. Every day I try to get at least 300 free throws up. Me and a couple of my homeboys, we go to the gym at night, and I just shoot free throws, try to help my shot, and I think it's just like I told you, it's all confidence. I was a pretty good free-throw shooter before I got to the NBA. I think it's just about me going up and knocking them down and not thinking so much.

Q. Before you guys beat Cleveland there was all this talk this was supposed to be the Kobe-LeBron Finals. What are your thoughts, and how important was it as a team to -- obviously the ultimate goal is to win this thing, but just to show everybody we belong in this series?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, obviously we was disappointed going into the Cleveland series because everybody just overlooked the series and said it was going to be Cleveland and LA. We were very hurt by it. But that's just the way things are.
All we have to do is go out and win games. For this series, we lost the first two games. We didn't play as well as we needed to, and we understood that. But we decided as a team that we weren't just going to give up. We deserve a chance to win the championship. We've worked extremely hard to get to where we're at today, so we weren't just happy with making it to The Finals and handing the Lakers an easy championship. We believe that if we play our game and play our style of basketball, this will be our year to win it. But we have to go out there and take it.
It's been tough for us, but nothing in life is easy. If we continue to play like we played last night and understand that it's going to get harder, then at the end of the series, we should have a trophy.

Q. You guys have had a remarkable ability to bounce back from games, but did last night give you guys confidence because it was in The Finals?
DWIGHT HOWARD: A little bit. We didn't want to go down 3-0 because that's basically impossible to come back from. We understood that, but we just tried to come out. The first game we had at home, the first Finals game we've had here in a long time, and we just wanted to give everything we had and give the fans a good show.

Q. Whether it's been your free-throw shooting or your post moves, you've done on-the-job training from the beginning. Do you think coming directly to the pros quickened your basketball education, slowed it down?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think it helped me. You know, right now this is the only thing I have to do is play basketball. I think the biggest area that I've improved is mentally. I think last year or the year before, I've had games where I can't get the ball or games where my teammates are not passing me the ball, my whole game would just stop. I wouldn't want to rebound, wouldn't want to block shots. And just by playing and learning the game and growing up while playing in the NBA has just really helped me to mature and realize there's other ways to win and score or be effective without having to have a post move or make a couple free throws - blocking shots, rebounding, doing the little things that help a team win.
Every series is different, and that's one of the things that I think my teammates and the coaching staff have really helped me out with is understanding that each game is going to be different, each series is going to be different. Teams are going to play me different than what the last team did, and I don't think going to college would have helped me out. Not saying that college is bad, it's very good, but I think for me and what I want to accomplish, it just wasn't for me.

Q. You're obviously richer for being here --
DWIGHT HOWARD: It's not about money, though.

Q. But you think you're a better basketball player, also, because you came directly to the NBA?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think so. You're playing basketball all the time. You're getting coached. You're playing against the best of the best.
You know, sometimes college is good for a lot of players, and others it's not.

Q. Rafer was just in here talking about the fact that you guys shot literally the best shooting percentage in NBA Finals history and it was still close, and he said that's present on you guys' minds, that you talked about it today. How much did you talk about it? And what's the cure there?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, we shot great, but I think the thing that kept the Lakers in the game last night was our turnovers. As a team we really havef to do a better job with taking care of the ball, especially in the fourth quarter. Every possession counts, like I said, each series is different, but one thing you can take from each series is that every possession counts, and you really have to take care of the ball.

Q. You know Kobe well enough to know that when he has a game he doesn't like -- he said after the game last night he was frustrated with the way he didn't close, not making those free throws, not making the shots he wanted at the end of the game. What do you know about him when he has a game he doesn't like and how he comes back the next game?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, I didn't think he had a bad game.

Q. I'm just quoting him.
DWIGHT HOWARD: I would say, I mean, his first quarter he had, what, 20-something points?

Q. 17.
DWIGHT HOWARD: 17? Some people don't even score that in a game. I don't think he had a bad game. I just think that towards the end, I think our defense picked up, and we made it a little bit tougher for him to get to the rim or get to the free-throw line.
Personally I don't think he had a bad game, but I know Kobe is going to come back the next game and try to do whatever he can. But we have to be ready for him.

Q. I was talking to Kareem, and he said he'd like to see you do more sky hooks, finesse plays and overpowering people. I'm curious if you've worked on getting a go-to shot? And can you last in this league with the physical play you do?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I don't know if you've been watching all the series, but I don't think there's been but a couple of plays where I've tried to overpower people. I think one of the shots that I really developed over the course of the playoffs and even during the year is the running hook. So I understand that I'm not going to be able to overpower my way and just use my physical ability for 20-some years to play in this league. I understand that.
But at the same time, I'm 23. Each year if you want to become a great player, you have to add something to your game. I think the running hook for me is something that I've added, and it's taken a lot of wear and tear off my legs by doing that instead of trying to overpower and dunk on people the whole game. For this series I haven't dunked the ball very much, so I don't think I've been doing a lot of overpowering. I think it's been more finesse, as you would call it.
Like I said to him and the other guys, each series is different. Last series I was able to do more with running hooks, and this series is different. But Kareem is right, and he understands that in order to be a good player you have to add different things to your game. I've tried to do the sky hook just like him, but he had more range and more touch. He was shooting sky hooks from the three-point line, and I'm still working on it from the paint, so I've got a long way to go.

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