Dwight Howard carries Orlando to 97-87 win over the Bucks
There is something about playing the big teams in away games, which seems to bring out the best in the Milwaukee Bucks.
A night after giving the red-hot Miami Heat defensive fits, the Bucks gave the Orlando Magic a run for their money, and it took another huge night from Dwight Howard to finally seal the game on Wednesday.
Howard pounded 28 points, 13 rebounds and two steals as the Magic romped to their seventh consecutive win. The Magic though have not been impressive to say the least in their last two games. The team from South Beach had a poor first half in a 20-point win
over Golden State on Monday, and this time they nearly coughed up a 19-point lead in the second half against Milwaukee.
Stan Van Gundy, the Orlando coach was not impressed.
"We're starting to back off in some areas," He said. "I think some people, after a while, start to take some things for granted. ... I don't like the way we've approached the last two games. It's only two games and I'm not going crazy, but I don't like it."
Orlando were the dominant team upfront, and they ran away with an 11-3 spurt midway in the first quarter, to establish their strangle-hold over the match. Brendon Bass was in the groove early, scoring six of Orlando’s first 14 points. Dwight Howard epitomised
Orlando’s early dominance, as he delivered an alley-oop slam-jam to cap the quarter at 25-17.
The Magic carried their momentum into the second frame and posted a six-point unanswered run early to further increase their advantage. The Bucks tried their utmost to get within striking distance, but failed to find a way past a tightly shored up defence,
spearheaded by Howard in the middle.
With over three minutes to go until the break and the Magic leading by 37-27, Howard took over the game offensively as well.
The imposing centre made a three point play to start kick-start a 12-6 spurt. He followed it with a lay-up, assisted Jameer Nelson for a three-pointer, roped in a turnaround bank shot and then capped the exhilarating display with a thunderous dunk. His exploits
ensured that the Magic sparked to a 49-33 advantage at half time.
As it turned out, Orlando needed every bit of his brilliance, as after a third quarter stalemate the Bucks started to up the ante. Milwaukee rang up a 13-6 run, bridging the last 37 seconds of the third frame and the first three minutes of the final quarter,
to pull within 10 points at 66-76.
The visitors did not stop their surge there, as Orlando’s cushion was reduced further to 84-79 on a jumper by John Salmons, with four minutes remaining.
Howard though, came to Orlando’s rescue with a lay-up and Hedo Turkoglu knocked one from downtown to extend the lead to 10 points. The duo struck again with couple of points each, moments later as Orlando secured the win despite shooting just 5 of 22 from
beyond the arc.
With the 97-87 win, the Magic avenged an 11-point loss at Milwaukee last month. The Magic were without Howard that night, and the Bucks big man Andrew Bogut scored 31 points and 18 rebounds. Howard was back this time though, and he made sure Bogut had the
most miserable night of the season. The Bucks centre only managed 6 points and 7 rebounds, and was shown the exit with less than 10 minutes left due to a foul.
All of Orlando’s starters notched up double figures, while J.J. Reddick came off the bench to score 10 points. For Milwaukee, Corey Maggette scored 21 points to lead the offence, as they shot below 40 percent from the field.
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