Dwight Howard helps Phoenix Suns defeat Orlando Magic 111–88
On the back of yet another monstrous night from Dwight Howard, who scored 26 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks, the Orlando Magic thrashed the Phoenix Suns 111–88 at the U.S Airways Centre on Sunday night.
With Aaron Brooks starting at the point guard position in place of the injured Steve Nash, the Suns looked out of tune and failed to produce the offensive spark that has become their hallmark. The Suns are 0-3 in games played without Steve Nash this season.
After the game, Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy said, "Aaron Brooks was great today. He scored a lot but Steve Nash sets everybody else up, gets everybody else playing. We have been fortunate we have played them twice without Steve Nash and it is a whole different
ball game."
With seven Magic players scoring in double-digits, the result was never in doubt, as Orlando bounced back from their meltdown against Golden State. They led from start to finish and came out comfortable winners in the end. Orlando led 49-36 with less than
six minutes left in the second quarter.
At that point, Vince Carter, Aaron Brooks and Marcin Gortat combined to even things out a bit with an unanswered 7-0 run to cut the lead to six. Assisted by a seven-point foray from Howard though, the Magic came right back to finish the half, leading by
61-52.
In the third period Phoenix totally fell apart and put up some dismal numbers. The Suns missed 12 consecutive shots, did not score for a nine minute stretch and managed only 13 points in the quarter. Orlando was sluggish as well, but finished the quarter
strongly with an 11-1 spurt.
The Magic led 87-65 at the end of the third quarter, and were never threatened after that, as the game ended at 111-88.
For Dwight Howard and the Magic, this win had significant importance as he passed the 10,000 point mark, while finally managing to defeat the Suns. Orlando had not beaten Phoenix at home since 14 November, 2001. Howard was also 0-6 at the U.S Airways Arena;
Phoenix being the only city where he hadn’t recorded a win.
Phoenix, which is considered one of the better three-point shooting teams in the league, failed to connect on 10 out of their 11 attempts in the first three quarters. The Suns had a bad night, as they only shot 38 percent from the floor.
Aaron Brooks, who started his first game for Phoenix, had 19 points and 10 assists.
Brooks told reporters after the game, "I'm still feeling it out, finding out everybody, where they want the ball at, different spots, trying to figure out the offence, trying to watch Steve. See what he does and implement that, since this offence has been
so successful."
Dwight Howard had a huge impact in the game, as Orlando bullied Phoenix on the glass for a 57-44 disparity and beat them in points-in-the-paint, 42 – 22.
For the Magic, Brandon Bass contributed 17 points, Gilbert Arenas had 16 and Hedo Turkoglu finished with 13 points and seven boards.
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