Best Game Ever: Dwight Howard’s 30-30 game

Dan Woike asked NBA players to tell us about the best game in their basketball career. This week: Dwight Howard

March 21, 2018: Charlotte 111, Brooklyn 105

32 points, 30 rebounds

An All-Star eight times, an All-NBA center eight times, a three-time defensive player of the year, Dwight Howard is now an energy-bringing rim protector coming off the Lakers’ bench, trying to resurrect his Hall of Fame career. While his best days were as a young center with springs in his legs, it wasn’t long ago that he turned a game that defines dominance for a center. Thirty points and 30 rebounds in the same game has happened only 155 times (the majority belonging to Wilt Chamberlain), and late in 2018, Howard grabbed a piece of history.

“I don’t think I’ve (had my best game ever) yet. Until now? It was probably the game where I had 32 points and 30 rebounds. It was against the Brooklyn Nets. I wasn’t thinking about it. Once you start thinking out there, that’s when things tend to go south. The game I had 30 and 30, I had like seven points and 11 rebounds at halftime. And I thought it could end up being one of the worst games of my career. And I just stopped thinking, went out there and tried to grab every rebound that I could get my hands on, just trying to be super aggressive in the paint. `That would probably be my best game — you don’t think. You just go out there and play. When you do, good things tend to happen.”

Clippers

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Dec. 7, 2019