The Orlando Magic improved the NBA's best road record by defeating a perennial championship contender to open a challenging four-game western trip. They hope to carry that success over to a venue that hasn't been kind to them in recent years.

The Magic look to continue their strong play on the road Tuesday night when they face the Sacramento Kings at Arco Arena, where they've won once in the last 15 years.

Orlando (30-8) further solidified its status as one of the NBA's elite teams with a 105-98 road victory over Southwest Division-leading San Antonio on Sunday night. Dwight Howard had 24 points and 14 rebounds and the Magic went 14-for-22 from 3-point range to improve to 14-5 away from home.

"It feels good," Howard said after handing the Spurs their second loss in 11 games. "The Spurs have been playing great lately and it's always good to get a quality win over a great team like (them). It says a lot about our team's growth and maturity."

That maturity should come in handy on this trip, which has the Magic visiting Sacramento, the conference-best Los Angeles Lakers and Denver.

While the Kings (9-29) may seem like the least challenging matchup of the trip, the Magic haven't had much success at Arco Arena lately, losing 12 of 13 in Sacramento since the start of the 1994-95 season. Orlando snapped an 11-game skid there with a 92-89 victory Dec. 4, 2006 before falling 104-100 last Jan. 8.

The Kings played well in their last home game, notching their first win over a team with a winning record in more than a month. After dropping 11 of their previous 12 games overall, they shot 50.6 percent from the field in a 102-95 victory over Dallas on Sunday night.

"We know the state of this team right now and we realize we went through some injuries this year," said shooting guard Kevin Martin, who led six Sacramento players in double figures with 21 points. "Right now we're getting everybody together and hopefully we'll continue to play team ball and nights like this will keep on happening."

The Kings, though, haven't had much success in stringing together victories. They haven't won consecutive games since taking three straight from Nov. 5-9.

"It was a good team win," Martin said Sunday. "But we need to get to two (in a row) instead of worrying about one. We need to get to two and then hopefully that translates into three, four and five."

Martin had 31 points in the Kings' first game against the Magic on Nov. 1. Howard, Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis and Mickael Pietrus each scored at least 20 points to give Orlando a 121-103 home win.

Jameer Nelson was the lone Magic starter that failed to reach 20 points in that contest, but he's been playing the best basketball of his career this season. The fifth-year point guard is averaging 16.4 points and shooting 50.4 percent from the field, both career highs.

"I have been playing with a lot of confidence lately," Nelson said after scoring 22 points against the Spurs on Sunday. "Even tonight, the misses felt good coming out. The secret is don't get discouraged. That's what the great players do, shoot through it and stay confident. It will turn."