The Washington Wizards’ Marcin Gortat is known as the “Polish Hammer“. Due to his play in the first round against the Toronto Raptors, perhaps he should be known as the “Playoff Hammer.”
What Gortat did against the Raptors wasn’t just any regular, run-of-the-mill hammer and some nails work either, it was more like a sledgehammer demolishing a building (franchise) type of work. All he left behind of the Raptors’ front court was dust and debris.
He went 29-for-39 from the field, only missing 10 shots during the four-game series. DeMar DeRozan averaged 12 missed shots per game by himself.
@WashWizards @dcsportsbog wore my new @MGortat shirt and he dominated. #ThePolishHammer #dcRising #Wizards #gortat pic.twitter.com/3b6jf6wY2O
— E (@evanh31) May 14, 2014
Zach Lowe of Grantland summed it up by saying,
"Gortat punched Barney in the freaking face. He shot 74 percent, finished everything near the bucket, aced his pick-and-roll dance with Wall, patrolled the interior, and dished assists at a career-best rate."
Comparing Gortat’s season numbers with his playoff numbers is startling.
In just 1.3 more minutes per game, Gortat averaged an extra 5.1 points, 1.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 0.7 blocks. Gortat already had a very healthy field goal percentage at 56.6 percent, which was good enough for third in the league during the regular season.
So far his playoff field goal percentage is a ridiculous 74.4 percent, which leads the playoffs and would have led the league.
Looking To The Second Round
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Gortat was dominant against the Raptors in the first round, but figures to face tougher competition in the second round.
The Atlanta Hawks finally finished off the Brooklyn Nets in Game 6 to advance. Gortat and the Wizards’ offense will now face the Hawks defense, which ranked seventh during the regular season, rather than the Raptors’ 23rd-ranked defense.
Not only is Gortat going up against better team defense, but also better individual defenders. Below are some key defensive numbers from the regular season for the two main defenders Gortat faced in the first round and the two most likely defenders he will face in their series with the Hawks to illustrate this difference.
The first number for each is the average difference in their opponent’s two-point field goal percentage while they are defending the shot via NBA.com’s player tracking data. The second number is their blocks per game and steals per game added together.
Note: Two point field goal percentage was used because that is the area of Gortat’s offense. He has only attempted 17 threes in his career and none in the playoffs as of yet.
It is important to point out that Johnson and Valanciunas split time fairly evenly in the regular season (26.4 and 26.2 minutes per game) and playoffs (28 and 26.5) whereas Horford plays the majority of the Hawks center minutes (30.5 during the regular season and 33 during the postseason) and Antic has a much more limited role (16.5 regular season, 15.8 during the postseason.)
While the Raptors’ duo actually accrues more steals and blocks, the Hawks are more consistent about making their opponents miss. An extra 2-3 percent knocked off a player’s average can mean the difference in a close game or series and it would be a good bet that they will knock more than that off of Gortat’s 74.4 percent shooting in the playoffs.
It is possible that the Hawks could go small with Paul Millsap at the center position across from Gortat for stretches of the game. In that case, the 6-foot-11 Gortat would have a noticeable size advantage over the 6-foot-8 Millsap on the block.
Opponents shot 2.7 percent higher on their two-point field goals while Millsap was guarding them, but he did force a combined 2.7 steals/blocks per game.
Something else worth looking at that could help shed light on how effective Gortat will be in the playoffs against the Hawks is their regular-season matchups.
| G | MP | FG% | FT | FTA | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 27.5 | .545 | 3.8 | 4.8 | .789 | 7.8 | 2 | 0 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 12.8 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/2/2015.
Gortat’s numbers aren’t all that impressive, but they are fairly close to his season averages for the most part. At least he wasn’t held well below his normal numbers.
What is more concerning for the Wizards is that during the regular season, the Hawks won three of the four games. The only game the Wizards won was one of the last games of the season in which the Hawks didn’t play a single starter.
If the Wizards hope to reverse that trend and win the series, Gortat must play better than merely OK. He has to show that he is capable of playing at least close to the way in which he hammered the Raptors, if he can’t duplicate that performance verbatim.
Will Gortat’s first round demolition be a harbinger of playoff dominance or an aberration caused by poor defensive play from the other team?
We’re about to find out.
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