JustSON the Numbers: Dwight Howard

Here at Just South of North we have noticed a recent trend. That trend has been whatever person or team that has been featured on JustSON the Numbers has struggled after we have featured them.

Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1, 1.65 ERA before being featured, he now sits at 4-2 with a 2.37 ERA and his cat died. Then Kasey Keller, 0.19 goals against average before, it's now gone up to 0.60 goals against average.

Even more recently the San Diego Padres had a 10 game winning streak snapped by JustSON because we had to mention it, and Joe Mauer of the Twins was featured sporting a .429 batting average, well he is 1 for his last 7 since.

With all that being said I figured I'd help out the NBA to prolong the Orlando Magic versus Cleveland Cavalier series and focus this edition on Dwight Howard. Since Howard has been such a big factor in this series, as he goes so goes the Magic, which isn't strange since he is the star of the team.

In breaking down Howard's numbers one thing is apparent, if he doesn't score they don't win, at least in the Cleveland series. The only game the Magic have lost in this series is the game that Cleveland managed to control him and that was in game 2. Howard managed only 8 shots in that game converting on just 3 of them and he went 4 of 8 from the foul line, far and away his worst shooting game. The Cavaliers should consider themselves lucky because even though they held Howard to just 10 points (about 10 below his playoff average) in the game, it took a miracle three pointer by LeBron James at the buzzer to finish off Orlando.

If you throw out Howard's dismal game 2 scoring performance he would be averaging 27 points a game in this series as well as an average of 14.7 shots per game and his free throw percentage would be at about 77%.

It appears that if Howard can stay out of foul trouble the Magic should be able to hold off Cleveland tonight at 7:45 pm eastern time on ESPN to advance to their 2nd NBA Finals in the teams history.

Well good luck beating Cleveland tonight Orlando, if the JustSON Jinx holds up it's going to be tough.

If anyone has any requests for this column let us know. I don't discriminate, no matter the sport or the stat.