Dwight Howard: HOH's Week 24 Silver Booster Award Winner

The Houston Rockets are almost done with the regular season and the start of the postseason is imminent.

I’d love to say that my team is poised to start the playoffs but something has gone terribly awry.

The team that I thought was going to make a considerable run through the Western Conference playoffs may be headed for another first-round exit.

But that all depends on who they face.

This week, Rockets’ fans were riding an all-time high as they proficiently defeated the feisty Oklahoma City Thunder but blundered big-time against the seasoned, calm, cool and collective San Antonio Spurs finishing out the week with a 1-2 record.

A team that we thought was destined for a championship was brought down to earth by the Spurs who knows how to do such a thing better than any team out there.

Gregg Popovich and his staff found their weaknesses and exploited them, making the team look inept and unprepared.

It’s the equivalent of being caught with your pants down!

But the Rockets must not give up and they have to continue to fight the good fight.

Because the West playoff race is so constricted, the Rockets loss last night dropped them to the No. 6 seed of the playoffs.

The was the worst case scenario and it seems we are witnesses of his unfortunate event that’s unfolding in front of our eyes.

However, how they performed against the New Orleans Pelicans is uplifting because it goes to show that they can get the things they need done not only to win games but understand and know how to tackle adversity.

But despite all of what happened, there was one player that shined and even with restrictions, he still gave it his all.

Because of this, excellence deserves to be recognized — today on that type of basis continuously, we will honor an individual player that made the most impact in helping the team, despite whether it resulted in a win or a loss.

We’ve dubbed it House of Houston Silver Booster Award…

And this week’s Silver Booster Award goes to…

Dwight Howard!

He has been back from his knee injury a few weeks now and is looking like a rejuvenated D12!

They way he’s moving around in the low post, snagging rebounds, scoring at will all within the minutes restriction that has been placed by the Rockets.

These last few games, he’s been getting between 22 to 28 minutes per game and has made the most of it while he’s in there.

He has been what we’ve been missing in terms of the interior defense the Rockets have needed to shut down the paint and have our opponents fear going in to there.

Because, quite honestly, in his absence, teams weren’t concerned about doing so and it made us look quite bad in the process.

The loss of Donatas Motiejunas requires D12 to step it up more than ever because we no longer have our “stretch four” to help out in the paint.

But Terrence Jones, Josh Smith and hopefully Joey Dorsey defensively will be available to help the big fella out.

For the week, Howard averaged 16.7 PPG, 11.0 RPG, 20-for-30 FG (66.7 percent), 10-for-20 FT (50 percent), in about 24 minutes per game.

That’s highly productive if you ask me; but, as always, he can certainly work on his free throw shooting.

I just don’t want him to be a liability in situations where teams are going to force our hand by sending him to the line.

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He can buck that trend of Rockets’ fan anxiety by making his free throws!

Just face it, in the little time he has had, he has made it count but sometimes he has to exit when we need him the most because of that damn minutes limitation.

But as the season comes to a close, we’re going to see more of D12 in the final moments of big games because after all, he is our other cornerstone and it’s imperative that he’s on the court during clutch time.

After all, this is Clutch City right?

Having D12 in the lineup is integral to our success and I wouldn’t expect anything less out of him to give 100 percent.

Dwight Howard: HOH’s Week 24 Silver Booster Award Winner

By Brian K. Patterson | Apr 13, 2015

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