Dwight Howard was singing an alpha dog tune on Monday, a day after the Houston Rockets lost Game 1 of their first-round playoff series with the Portland Trail Blazers 122-120 in overtime.
Howard scored 27 points on 9-of-21 shooting, but he was not satisfied with the performance and has some different strategic plans in mind for Game 2.
“We have to play inside out, play their bigs and make it a long night for those guys,” Howard said via the Houston Chronicle. “I have to demand the ball, get it and go to work.”
Not only does Howard think the team could benefit by playing inside-out and feeding him the ball inside, but he thinks that could force Portland to expend more energy trying to defend him. He thinks that could help slow down LaMarcus Aldridge, who scored a franchise-record 46 points while grabbing 18 rebounds.
“We have to go right back at him,” Howard said. “You have to make him play defense and make him use his energy on defense. Make him have to run around and guard.”
Game 2 is on Wednesday night. We imagine Howard will get his usual amount of touches, but this time Houston will come out victorious.
