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The Charlotte Hornets downed the Minnesota Timberwolves Monday, 118-102, to win their first back-to-back contests since Nov. 1. Plenty of Hornets players contributed to the win, but it was center Dwight Howard’s monster 20-20 effort of 25 points and 20 rebounds that stood out in the game.
Those numbers aside, Howard also was relatively successful at the foul line, making eight of his 10 free throws, including six of 10 in the fourth quarter, when the Timberwolves were resorting to the good, old “Hack-a-Howard” scheme in hopes of getting extra possessions off of Howard’s free throw misses.
Dwight Howard denied the Timberwolves of taking advantage of his poor free throw shooting, and his performance at the charity stripe on Monday may have something to do to his devil-may-care approach to shooting free throws, per Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer.
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“Tonight, I was just…I don’t want to say the word,” Howard said, before spelling out a commonly-used profanity.
“That was my whole mindset: They fouled me? Who cares. That means they respect myself and our offense enough that they feel like they have to foul to get us not scoring.”
Now playing in his 14th season in the league, Howard remains hobbled by his free throw shooting woes. He is making just 42.9 percent of his shots from the line this season. He is also just a 56.4 percent career free throw shooter.
Nevertheless, Dwight Howard brings so much value to the Hornets, especially when healthy. And putting up astounding scoring and rebounding numbers certainly compensate for his mediocrity in shooting bonus shots.
