14 punktów, 14 zbiórek i 6 bloków

W meczu z Rockets, Howard dostał dzień odpoczynku, a w pierwszej piątce na jego miejscu pojawił się Gortat. Tak jak można było się spodziewać, Marcin wykorzystał swoją szansę i zaprezentował grę na najwyższym poziomie. Nadal nie był zbyt często wykorzystywany w ataku, ale nie przeszkodziło mu to w odnotowaniu double-double. W dwóch wcześniejszych spotkaniach grał niewiele, teraz przebywał na parkiecie prawie 36 minut i nie zmarnował tego czasu. Ostatecznie miał na swoim koncie 14 punktów (4/5 z gry), 14 zbiórek i aż 6 bloków. Tym samym Gortat po raz kolejny udowodnił, że jest zbyt dobry by siedzieć na ławce i być wyłącznie zmiennikiem Howarda.

Do you think that's an example of showing what you can do when you get starter's minutes, to be able to go out and get a double-double and a couple of blocks?

I believe I can do that. I've been showing these many games in the NBA, I've been showing these many games in the Eurobasket so I believe I can do that and obviously when we got Dwight Howard on the team, I'm going to fight for minutes with Dwight Howard but I'm going to try to work on my game to play maybe as a four man.

I know the Houston Rockets were interested in you during free agency. Was this game a little bit of showing them what they're missing?

No, I don't think so. It was just a game, it was another game with a team that was calling my agent a couple of months ago but still, it's just me. If the Houston Rockets like me, then they got to call my agent, whatever, but right now I'm an Orlando Magic player and I'm happy to be here. We got a great team, we got to work on a couple of things but we got a great team to win a championship this year.

I know that you stated you wanted to play alongside Dwight. When do you think you can get to that point when you can play with him?

Just be consistent with my outside game, I would say. I don't think there's a lot of things that I need to work on defense. I would say that I was pretty solid on defense but I got to work on my game, I got to be consistent with my jump shot, I got to be consistent with certain moves instead of habits with the four man gone, I'm still learning.

I jeszcze Vince Carter:

What did you think of Marcin Gortat's play tonight?

I think he really got after it. I mean, they didn't pay him the money for nothing. They didn't bring him back, they went out to get him and they didn't bring him back for nothing and I think he did that tonight and it's just great to have another weapon like that to back him up if he's in foul trouble or if he's not playing tonight so it's great to see.

źródło: Third Quarter Collapse