Howard Lifts Magic To Win Over Cavaliers

By: Associated Press | NBC4i.com
Published: March 18, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Orlando Magic found their shooting touch - beyond 23 feet.

Rashard Lewis made three of five 3-pointers in scoring 21 points, Dwight Howard had 23 points and 13 rebounds and the Orlando Magic beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 104-90 Monday night.

Orlando shot better from 3-point range (43.8 percent) than it did overall (39.5 percent). The Magic won despite getting outscored 22-3 on fastbreak points and 46-34 in the paint.

"The main focus is to get the ball inside to Dwight," Lewis said. "Obviously he demands so much attention and they can't guard him 1-on-1. They try to clog the paint and they leave us wide open out on the wing, so we take what they give us."

LeBron James had 30 points, nine rebounds and six assists for Cleveland. Delonte West had 16 points and Sasha Pavlovic added 14.

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Cleveland must have known it wasn't their night when Jameer Nelson, who was 2-for-12 from the field, sank Orlando's 14th 3-pointer on its 32nd attempt. It rimmed out, then bounced off the backboard and in with 2:30 left.

"They made shots that they didn't make in the first half," James said. They are a team that shoots the ball very well. They hit a lot of 3-pointers, and when they do that it is tough to come back. We just never recovered from that."

Hedo Turkoglu had 18 points and seven rebounds and Maurice Evans had 10 points for Orlando. Nelson had seven assists but only six points.

Cleveland led 45-40 at halftime, and by as many as 10 in the third quarter before Orlando made a run. Evans, Turkoglu and Lewis each hit consecutive 3-pointers and Nelson capped it with a 3-point play to give the Magic a 73-72 lead at the end of the third quarter.

"We had to change our coverage and they still hit a couple on us," Cleveland coach Mike Brown said.

James nearly kept Cleveland in the game by himself in the fourth, scoring seven of its first nine points. Four of them were on seemingly effortless dunks.

But the Cavaliers went more than four minutes without a bucket, missing three straight free throws (one from James and two from Zydrunas Ilgauskas).

Turkoglu sealed the win with a 3-pointer to put the Magic ahead 89-81 with 5:35 left.