Lakers-Magic Preview

By JEFF MEZYDLO
Posted Jan 20 2012 12:33AM

The Orlando Magic are ready to put their first loss in almost two weeks behind them. They can start by adding to the Los Angeles Lakers' struggles on the road.

Looking to improve their recent play at the Amway Center, the Magic try to beat the Lakers in Orlando for the fourth consecutive year Friday night.

Orlando (10-4) was riding a five-game winning streak when - playing its third game in as many nights - it shot a season-low 33.3 percent in Wednesday's 85-83 overtime home loss.

While the victory was the first on the road all season for the Spurs, the Magic's home defeat was their second in three games.

"There's another game coming up, (we've) got to get this one behind us," Dwight Howard told the Magic's official website. "There are a lot of things that could have been better, but in the end we fought hard, we played a tough game and there's nothing more we can do about it."

The Magic will now try to continue their home success against Los Angeles (10-6), which has dropped its last three regular-season games at Orlando. The Lakers did win the final two games of the 2009 NBA Finals in Orlando to claim their first of two straight titles.

The teams split their two regular season meetings in 2010-11, with Orlando holding the Lakers to 39.3 percent shooting during an 89-75 home win Feb. 13.

Howard, who finished with 31 points and 13 rebounds in that contest, had 24 points and 25 boards in Wednesday's loss to San Antonio for his fourth 20-20 game this season.

Howard is averaging 26.3 points and 19.3 rebounds in his last four home games.

The Magic, however, have been held to 83 points in each of their last two home losses, sandwiching a 96-89 victory over Charlotte on Tuesday.

Despite struggling to make shots against the Spurs, the Magic felt they could easily have come out ahead.

"We just came up short in the end," Howard said. "Third game in a row, (we) fought hard for the whole game. So there's nothing bad you can say about (Wednesday's) game."

Los Angeles is giving up 98.8 points per game on the road while scoring just 91.3, going 1-5 away from home.

The Lakers scored a road season low Thursday, falling 98-87 at Miami while shooting 42.0 percent. Pau Gasol scored 26 points, Kobe Bryant had 24 and Andrew Bynum added 15 and 12 rebounds.

"We tried to adjust to some things," said Bryant, who has totaled 38 points in his last two games after scoring 40 or more in each of his previous four. "We might want to go back to some of the things that we were doing a few weeks ago in terms of me being on some spots on the floor and things where I'm most comfortable."

Bryant, who leads the NBA with 30.4 points per game, was held to 17 in the road loss to the Magic last season. Prior to that performance, Bryant had averaged 31.6 points in his previous seven regular season and playoff games at Orlando.

Howard's big night carries Magic past Lakers 92-80

By KYLE HIGHTOWER
Posted Jan 21 2012 12:06AM

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) If Orlando center Dwight Howard is eventually traded to the Los Angeles Lakers before season's end, he will be joining a team the Magic continue to dominate at the Amway Center.

Playing their fourth game in five nights, the Magic's energy wasn't always great Friday night, but they came alive when it counted in a 92-80 win over the Lakers - Orlando's sixth victory in the last nine regular-season meetings between the two.

Howard scored 21 points and grabbed 23 rebounds to guide his team through a tough shooting performance. Jameer Nelson added 17 points and nine assists, and J.J. Redick had 15 points as all five starters reached double figures.

Earlier in the day, Magic general manager Otis Smith alluded to Howard's preseason trade request and desire to play with a different point guard as the culprits in Nelson's unusually slow start this season. The teams Howard's agent can talk with are the Lakers, Dallas and New Jersey.

But Nelson, who came in averaging career lows in points (8.3) and shooting (38 percent), finally showed some assertiveness offensively.

"It's more important for us to win against a good team," Nelson said. "It's not about a `Jameer game' or myself individually. I'll get myself going. During the course of a season you're gonna have ups and downs as an individual and as a team. So the way you handle them as a person coming through the next game after a bad game - that says who you are."

Kobe Bryant scored 30 points and Pau Gasol chipped in 13 for the Lakers, who lost their second straight and posted a season low in points to drop to 1-6 on the road.

The Magic were also helped by Los Angeles' second consecutive game shooting under 40 percent. The Lakers' 80 points also erased the season low they set in Thursday night's loss at Miami.

Orlando was only slightly better at 41 percent but connected on 12 3-pointers.

"I just think we came out and were aggressive from the beginning of the game," Howard said. "We ran, we did a good job with our defensive assignments and we got a good win."

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy did some lineup shuffling to give his team some fresher legs against the Lakers' big front line.

With forward Hedo Turkoglu sitting out, Van Gundy opted to start Redick in his place - forming a three-guard lineup with Jason Richardson and Nelson at the point. It did help neutralize the Lakers' height advantage and led to several fast break opportunities for Orlando. There is still room for improvement, though.

"I thought our first half was excellent energy-wise," Van Gundy said. "I thought in the second half the energy was not so good. But I also thought what happened was we hit a stretch in the third quarter where it was foul, foul and the game just slowed down. I'd like to get our pace up."

The strategy also worked because the matchup between Howard and Lakers 7-footer Andrew Bynum was diminished barely 2 minutes into the second quarter when Bynum picked up his third foul.

"To get three the same way is pretty tough," Bynum said.

He returned, but left again late in the third after getting whistled for his fourth. Los Angeles also tried sending Howard to the foul line. That, too, was ineffective as Howard managed to rack up nine points from the charity stripe.

The Lakers cut the Magic's lead to 74-66 midway through the fourth quarter, but a technical on Bryant ignited an 8-0 Orlando spurt to push the lead back to 16. The Magic mostly were able to cruise from there.

"We just have to keep playing," Lakers coach Mike Brown said. "There's no magic dust or no magic potion to be able to get us to get wins on the road. We have to just keep trying to executive offensively."

Both teams struggled at times shooting in the first half, but the Magic caught fire with just over 4 minutes to play before halftime, and Ryan Anderson's 3-pointer broke a streak of seven straight missed shots for Orlando.

With Bynum out, Howard also had a relatively easy time inside and was good on 6 of 8 free throw attempts to finish the half with 10 points and 15 rebounds.

Bryant scored 15 first-half points, but it was the lone early bright spot for the Lakers.

The Magic led 22-10 after one, with the Lakers struggling mightily on the offensive end. Relying on a lot of perimeter shots, the Lakers were just 4 for 21 in the period, including Gasol missing all four of his shots.

Orlando wasn't much better at 9 for 20, but managed to build as much as a 12-point cushion thanks to a 10-2 advantage on points in the paint.

Just a day removed from their lone back-to-back-to-back of the season, the Magic get little reprieve from the condensed schedule - though it's something Redick said they are already preparing for.

"It's just the way the schedule is," Redick said. "Everybody's like, yeah we've got four games in five nights. Well, guess what, when that's over you've got 10 in 15, and as soon as that's over you've got six in nine. That's just how it works this season. There's no let up."

Notes: Howard has recorded 98 total rebounds his last five games. ... Turkoglu sat out for the second straight game with back spasms. ... Richardson returned to the starting lineup after missing three games with a bone bruise on his left knee. ... F Glen Davis played after attending his grandmother's funeral earlier in the day in Louisiana. ... The Lakers return home to host Indiana Sunday night and then are off until Wednesday when they play the Clippers.

Notebook: Magic 92, Lakers 80

By Dick Scanlon, for NBA.com
Posted Saturday January 21, 2012 12:37AM

THE FACTS: Dwight Howard had 21 points and 23 rebounds, and the Orlando Magic led comfortably throughout most of a 92-80 victory against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jameer Nelson shook off a slump to contribute 17 points and nine assists to the Magic's fifth win in six games.

Kobe Bryant scored 30 points for the Lakers, who shot 29 percent in the first half while falling behind by as many as 23 points.

QUOTABLE: "It's not about putting up big numbers. The stat sheet doesn't tell what happened during the game. The objective for me is to dominate on both ends of the floor. It's not just about scoring, but getting my teammates involved, crashing the boards and making the defense work."
-- Magic center Dwight Howard

THE STAT: The Lakers actually raised their NBA-low 3-point shooting percentage to .259 with a 6-of-20 performance while the Magic shot a healthy .444 (12-for-27) from behind the arc.

QUOTABLE II: "We are struggling offensively, no question about it. We got a lot of good looks . . . a lot of them. We just have to keep hitting the open man and those shots will fall."
-- Lakers guard Kobe Bryant.

TURNING POINT: After a sluggish first half, the Lakers found themselves down by only 11 points after Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol produced the first three baskets of the second half. Ryan Anderson nailed a 3-pointer to turn things back in Orlando's direction.

QUOTABLE III: "Every time it was sort of getting away when they were making a run, it seemed like then we'd make a three. J.J. (Redick) hit one, Ryan (Anderson) hit one in the corner and we always kept them at double figures or more."
-- Magic coach Stan Van Gundy.

HOT: Howard has had three 20-point, 20-rebound games among his last five games while averaging 19.6 rebounds.

NOT: The Lakers made eight of their first 35 shots, including only one 3-pointer.

GOOD MOVE: Jason Richardson, held out of three preceding games by a left knee bruise, returned to start at small forward against the Lakers and played strong defense on Bryant in the first half. Richardson thanked the trainers for keeping him out of Wednesday night's game.

BAD MOVE: The Lakers had trimmed the Magic's lead to eight with 6:03 left when Bryant knocked a ball out of bounds and drew a technical foul for complaining that the Lakers were not awarded possession. After Nelson made the foul shot, Richardson drove around Bryant for a dunk, moving Orlando's lead back into double figures permanently.

FANTASY SPOTLIGHT: Howard has played 165 minutes in four games over five days.

ROOKIE WATCH: Darius Morris scored the first five points of the final quarter for the Lakers. He was the only Laker non-starter with more than one field goal.

NOTABLE: Although they are 14-32 all-time against the Lakers, the Magic have won five of the last seven meetings, not including the Lakers' 4-1 triumph in the 2009 NBA Finals ... The Lakers have lost three of four while averaging only 83.5 points ... Howard has 37 career 20/20 games, five this season.

UP NEXT: For the Lakers, Sunday vs. Indiana, Wednesday vs. L.A. Clippers, Saturday (Jan. 28) @ Milwaukee. For the Magic, Monday @ Boston, Tuesday @ Indiana, Thursday vs. Boston.

• Lakers: Blake, Caracter
• Magic: Liggins, Turkoglu

• Lakers: Bryant
• Magic: --

• Lead Changes: 1
• Times Tied: 1

• Arena: Amway Center, Orlando, FL
• Officials: #8 Marc Davis, #35 Kane Fitzgerald, #58 Josh Tiven
• Attendance: 18846
• Duration: 2:23