Howard's play forces Shaq to eat his words

Of Dwight Howard's performance against Dallas on Tuesday night at Toyota Center in the second game of the NBA Western Conference playoffs, someone said:

"You know, I've been saying 28 (points), 15 (rebounds) - that's domination from a big man. If he can get these types of numbers, the Rockets have a legitimate chance of winning a championship."

Who was that someone?

a) Howard's mother

b) Howard's agent

c) Shaquille O'Neal

As difficult as it might be to believe, it was O'Neal, No. 1 among Howard bashers who don't currently live in Los Angeles.

That's the O'Neal who criticized Howard for his Superman alter ego.

That's the O'Neal who said Brook Lopez and Andrew Bynum were better centers than Howard.

My favorite O'Neal quote came when he accused Howard of leaving the Lakers because he couldn't handle the big city.

"I think it was a safe move, going to a little town like Houston," O'Neal said. "That's right. Little town. I said it."

O'Neal also has said he's a critic because he's trying to motivate Howard. It must have worked in the Rockets' 111-99 victory Tuesday night, giving them a 2-0 series lead going into Friday's game at Dallas.

O'Neal got something wrong in his postgame commentary on TNT. Howard didn't have 28 points and 15 rebounds. He had 28 and 12.

Details, details.

"He had 28 and 12, 8-of-11 from the free-throw line," O'Neal said, correcting himself. "That's domination. If he plays like that, nobody can beat them."

Certainly not the Mavericks.

They did a good job in Game 1 of drawing fouls against Howard, who played only 17 minutes. That enabled them to gang up on James Harden. But they couldn't guard everyone else in the 118-108 loss.

The strategy worked again against Harden on Tuesday night. Howard, however, couldn't be coaxed into more than a couple of foolish fouls. That doesn't mean he played soft, the word Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant used to describe Howard this season. He didn't back down against the physical play of Tyson Chandler and sent a message to Dirk Nowitzki that he wasn't welcome inside the paint with a hard foul that should not have been called a flagrant.

Defensive dilemmas

Howard played 33 minutes and, with above-the-rim passes from Josh Smith, pick-and-rolled the Mavericks into submission with four fourth-quarter dunks. He had seven in the game.

Hack-A-Howard? He rendered it ineffective by making his free throws.

What can the Mavericks do in Game 3?

Speaking of defending against Harden, Nowitzki said: "Guarding James on the screen-and-roll isn't for one guy. It isn't for two guys. It's for five guys that are helping."

So that's five on Harden. Who guards Howard and Smith?

"It's almost impossible because it's just picking your poison," Chandler said. "Who's going to dunk the ball, whether it's going to be Josh or Dwight."

So it probably takes three to guard those two.

The Mavericks need to start putting at least one man on Corey Brewer.

Do the math. It adds up to a series that will last four games, no more than five.

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle knows the score.

"They are a problem," he said of the Howard-Smith combination in particular. "We've got to study that and do a better job. It was pretty obvious in the fourth quarter. They jumped on us on a lot of those plays."

Or over them.

"My teammates found me in good spots, and it was up to me to finish," Howard said.

Valuable at both ends

Although Howard has become recognized more recently for his defense, Carlisle said: "He's a dominant scorer on the inside when he gets the ball deep, so we're going to have to work hard to limit his touches down there."

This is the Howard the Rockets believed they were getting when signing him as a free agent before last season.

This is the Howard the Lakers thought they were getting the season before.

Jeanie Buss, one of the Lakers' owners, said in a recent interview with ESPN the Magazine the team didn't use him correctly.

"It came down to hiring a coach," she said, referring to Mike D'Antoni. "When you have a big man and a (point) guard, you have to decide whom you're going to build your team around. The choice was to build it around Steve Nash and what suited Steve Nash instead of what suited Dwight Howard."

Funny the Lakers didn't have that problem with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Howard would find it funny. He finds lots of things funny. That's another criticism O'Neal had of Howard.

"He's just too nice," O'Neal said. "All that giggling and smiling too much."

It looks like Howard could have the last giggle.