Dwight Howard dazzles; Orlando Magic trounce Golden State Warriors – NBA Recap
The Orlando Magic continued their good start to the 2011-2012 NBA season thanks to a herculean effort by super star centre Dwight Howard. Howard’s superb display drove the Magic to a 117 – 109 success over
a strong Golden State Warriors side which has been impressive itself in this new season.
The game at the ORACLE arena swayed back and forth as both sides went at it, hauled on by their respective stars. For if the Magic had Howard, Golden State banked on mercurial shooting guard Monta Ellis. Ellis
responded as well, producing all the goods, 30 points and 11 assists, and was ably assisted by David Lee, 26 points and 12 rebounds.
The Magic, and Howard, though were just too strong. Dwight scored an astonishing 45 points in the game and had an equally outlandish 23 rebounds in a massive double-double effort. He was so dominating inside
that the Hawks sort of gave up trying to stop him towards the end.
Hidayet Turkoglu also had a good night out with 20 points and 9 assists. Only two other Orlando players made it into double figures.
It wasn’t easy for Howard and his team though, not by a long shot. The Warriors raced out of the blocks with a 9 – 0 run to start the game and took control of the first half. The first quarter finished 29 –
22 in their favour. They weren’t to be dislodged in the second either; despite the Magic scoring 31 points, at halftime the score read 57 – 53 to Golden State.
Things got much more interesting after the break as Orlando started to threaten the Warriors with some aggressive play, overtaking them through an early 7 – 0 burst. The lead swayed back and forth in the third
quarter and at the end the Warriors managed to just get their noses in front at 82 – 80.
Golden State would have planned to hold off the opponents after that, but Dwight was enormous in the final period; scoring free throws, drilling hook shots and making layups to devastating effect. Behind his
lead Orlando piled on 37 points in the penultimate quarter which proved too much for the Warriors and the game was secured at 117 – 109.
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