Dwight Howard puts on a show as Orlando Magic rout Washington Wizards 103-85: NBA Recap
A night after their worst shooting performance so far in the season against the Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic shrugged off their rust and sprinted to a 31 point first quarter enroute to a 103-85 win over the winless Washington
Wizards here tonight at the Amway centre.
Dwight Howard, the Magic talisman had a huge night with 28 points and 20 rebounds while Ryan Anderson hammered 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in a win that propelled the Magic to a 5-2 record and will be a good preparation for
Friday’s game against the Chicago Bulls.
"We came out and played better than we had against Detroit," Howard said. "It was good to see us bounce back."
The Wizards meanwhile have slipped to their worst season start in the franchise history and according to their ace playmaker John Wall, who managed only 14 points and 5 assists on the night, the much needed first win will not come
if his team continues on this pattern;
"It's everything," he said. "We go over everything on defense in the shootaround, but we didn't do it out there. You see what happened to us. Once everybody started being selfish on offense, (and) then on the defensive end we're
not trusting each other.
The Wizards had trouble penetrating the Magic defense early and missed their first 12 field shots. The hot Orlando shooting in the first quarter didn’t help them either. The host starting the game on a roll and shot at more than
60 percent to carve out a 31-14 lead going into the second.
Magic continued to pound the Wizards in the second quarter with 2:19 left in the break, a Howard alley oop dunk on Jameer Nelson’s dish stretched their lead to as many as 22 points, at 56-34.
After finishing the first half with a 56-38 lead, the Magic raced away to a 13-2 run early in the third to pull away. The one way traffic continued and the Magic led by 103-75 in the penultimate minute, before the Wizard closed
the game on a ten point unanswered run to salvage some respectability in the final scores.
The Wizards were led by Nick Young with 17 points while Andray Blatche had 10. For the Magic, except Howard and Anderson, Hedo Turkoglu had 14 points, 8 assist and 5 boards and J.J. Redick also finished with 14 off the bench.
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