Leon Powe Dominated Lakers Through Circumstance, Not Greatness

If you believe Mark Jackson, or any number of overheated internet scribes, Leon Powe has arrived. This didn’t come out of nowhere; before the 2006 draft, my good pal Tom Ziller sang the praises of Powe’s pro potential. I think it has something to do with Powe’s combination of hard work and athleticism, humility and occasional swagger, adversity and dominance.↵
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↵That said, I think his performance is being blown out of proportion. I’m bad with numbers, but I know this: Scoring a lot of points in a small window of time, especially off the bench, can just mean that no one’s paying attention to the player. Like he’s limited, defenses know it, and are willing to take their chances. In less than 15 minutes, Powe had 21 points, and not much of anything else. He went 6 for 7 from the floor, 9 of 13 at the stripe. All of which indicates someone left open, or reached by a defender too late to do anything but foul. Not an unstoppable force.↵
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↵Maybe I’m just being grouchy, or inveterately anti-Boston. I think it’s important to keep this in perspective, though. Especially when you compare it to some of Rodney Stuckey’s playoff outbursts, which were legitimate dissections of defenses. Not a garbage man air raid that happened with backs turned.
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↵If Powe does it again, I’ll recant all of this.↵