Don't Blame Z, Look at Backcourt

Before we blame Z and his defense of Dwight Howard for the Game 1 loss, let's take some things into consideration:

Z's +- was a plus 12 where as Ben Wallace was a minus 14. I know those stats can be misleading but it is interesting to think about. Honestly, this would be a perfect series to get Lorenzen Wright some minutes as a big physical body to D up Howard but alas, he is hurt. Ben is just too small to be effective in this series.

Mo and Delonte shot 10 for 32. It's bad enough to shoot 28% but when your duo takes 32 field goals in the process, it's tough to win. The rest of the team shot an outstanding 33/56, the two guards really need to step it up.

The point is, yes Z had some trouble with Howard defensively, but so did everyone else on the team! Howard didn't beat us, the three point shooting in the 2nd half (particularly from Turkoglu and Lewis) did! Z had a double double and did his job. This was a team effort but let's look at the back-court who we have praised all season, and take into account that Mo and Delonte need to step up!