Lakers Gameday | 12/02/07 | Magic 104, Lakers 97

Hedo Turkoglu sparked a pivotal 9-0 run with a 3-pointer that put Orlando ahead to stay and added a layup with 55 seconds left to lead the Orlando Magic to a 104-97 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night.

Rashard Lewis led the Magic with 18 points, and Dwight Howard had 17 points and eight rebounds. Backup point guard Carlos Arroyo wasn't with the club after returning to Orlando on Saturday night to be with his ill 3-year-old daughter, Gabriella. He also will miss the finale of the five-game road trip, which is at Golden State.

Orlando is off to a 15-4 start in its first season under coach Stan Van Gundy, matching the best start in the franchise's 19-year history. The Magic had the same record to begin the 1994-95 campaign and matched that the following season. Just four years ago, they opened 1-18.

Orlando is 11 games over .500 for the first time since finishing the strike-delayed 1998-99 season 33-17, and leads the NBA with a 10-2 road mark. The victory was the Magic's first road win over the Lakers after 10 straight losses, including their last two visits to the Forum. They have won only three of the last 18 meetings overall and nine of 30 since joining the NBA in 1990.

Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 28 points, 19 in the first quarter. Lamar Odom had 19 points and 19 rebounds.

Turkoglu finished with 14 points, and is the only Orlando player to reach double figures in every game this season. He also leads the team with 99 fourth-quarter points.

The Magic led by as many as 10 points early in the third quarter before the Lakers pulled ahead 73-70 with an 18-5 run, capped by Vladimir Radmanovic's layup with 3:36 left in the period. Neither team led by more than three points during an 11:06 span of the second half before J.J. Redick made a 3-pointer, two free throws and a 15-footer in a 63-second span to give Orlando an 85-80 lead with 8:23 to play.

The Magic missed 11 of their first 15 shots while Los Angeles pulled out to a 23-15 lead, their biggest of the game. Bryant scored the last 11 points of the Lakers' opening run, making three shots from 3-point range in a 59-second span and following that with a slam dunk off an alley-oop pass by Derek Fisher.

Howard had 39 points and 16 rebounds in a win at Seattle on Wednesday night, then had 30 points and 23 boards in Friday night's loss at Phoenix. But he got out of the blocks slowly against the Lakers, going to the bench after picking up his second foul with 6:11 left in the first quarter.

Orlando's Maurice Evans and Brian Cookfaced their former teammates for the first time since getting traded to Orlando on Nov. 20 for Trevor Ariza. Evans played 21 minutes and had nine points, while Cook had three points in 9 minutes. Ariza, who has had less than 16 minutes of playing time since becoming a Laker, spent the entire game on the bench.

Notes: Orlando is 14-0 when leading after three quarters (9-0 on the road), and 11-0 when holding an opponent under 100 points. ... The Magic have never won a season series from the Lakers, but have a chance to remedy that when the Lakers visit Orlando on Feb. 8. ... The Magic, 10-for-30 from behind the 3-point arc, are now 8-2 when making 10 or more 3-point baskets. The Lakers were 8-for-29 on 3-point attempts. ... Orlando had a 25-24 advantage in assists, and improved to 11-0 under those circumstances.

Kobe Bryant gives the Los Angeles Lakers the NBA's most dominant player at his position. Thanks to Dwight Howard, the Orlando Magic may be able to make the same claim.

Howard and the Magic (14-4) look to improve their NBA-best 9-2 road record Sunday when they face Bryant and the Lakers with a chance to end a 10-game road losing streak in the series.

Orlando fell 110-106 at Phoenix on Friday night for its second loss to the Suns in three weeks. The defeat certainly couldn't be blamed on Howard, as the 21-year-old center had 30 points and a season-high 23 rebounds, prompting Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni to label him a "monster."

Despite that performance, the Magic proved to be outclassed by the Suns. Orlando couldn't overcome a 31-16 deficit after the first quarter despite outscoring Phoenix 90-79 the rest of the way.

"We didn't play well enough or long enough,'' said Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy, whose team fell to 2-1 on a five-game Western Conference road trip. "I'll give our guys some credit for their resilience at the end. But I'm not going to act like it was a great performance.''

Howard's leap from solid presence in the paint to emerging superstar in his fourth NBA season has been the biggest reason for the Magic's outstanding start. He averaged 17.6 points last season and his 12.3 rebounds per game ranked third in the league. In 2007-08, however, he's scoring 23.8 points a game and grabbing a league-best 15.0 rebounds.

He had eight dunks against Phoenix, giving him an NBA-best 81 on the season - the Lakers' Andrew Bynum is in second with 34. He had more dunks than 25 teams prior to Friday night's games.

Howard certainly isn't the only reason Orlando is off to a fast start. New addition Rashard Lewis is averaging 19.1 points and shooting 38.7 percent from 3-point range, and Hedo Turkoglu (37.5 percent) and Keith Bogans (37.1) have also been accurate from beyond the arc.

Orlando is making 9.1 3-pointers per game, best in the league, and its 103.4-point average is tops in the Eastern Conference.

The Lakers (9-7) boast a potent offense of their own, averaging 106.0 points, among the top five in the league. Los Angeles is led once again by superstar guard Bryant, who's averaging 27.6 points a game.

Unlike past seasons in which Bryant has carried Los Angeles offensively, however, Bryant's been getting help this season. Four other Lakers are averaging double figures in scoring, and eight total players average at least 7.3 points. Jordan Farmar (10.1 ppg), Vladimir Radmanovic (8.9) and Ronny Turiaf (7.6) give Los Angeles a deep bench.

Despite the newfound balance and depth, the Lakers have been up and down, winning seven games by at least 10 points but losing four by at least 13.

That inconsistency was on display in the Lakers' two most recent games. They beat Denver 127-99 at home Thursday, but followed it up a night later by losing 120-96 at Utah, which was playing without leading scorer Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur.

"One of my coaches said we were as soft as Dairy Queen ice cream (at Utah),'' coach Phil Jackson said.

The Jazz scored 52 points in the paint in the first half and 70 on the night.

"They were just having a frolic in the lane," Jackson said. "Our big guys just didn't step up and play and our guards weren't controlling the dribble and penetration."

The Lakers will look to bounce back and continue their dominance of the Magic. Los Angeles hasn't lost at home to Orlando since March 17, 1996, and has won five in a row and 15 of 17 overall in the series.

Orlando and Los Angeles haven't met this season, but they made a trade Nov. 20. The Lakers sent forwards Brian Cook and Maurice Evans to the Magic for forward Trevor Ariza.

Cook and Ariza haven't made much of an impact for their new teams, but Evans has contributed 6.0 points off the bench for the Magic.