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ORLANDO — Without Chris Bosh in the lineup because of a knee injury, the Toronto Raptors' task of playing against Orlando Magic centre Dwight Howard became more difficult.
They did a decent job of it for the first three quarters last night. Howard had three points, 10 rebounds and four fouls when the fourth quarter opened with the Magic leading 71-68.
When the fourth was done, Orlando's leading scorer had 19 points and 14 rebounds for the game and the Magic had a 102-87 victory before an announced attendance of 17,519 at Amway Arena.
It was the third loss in a row for the Raptors, who play tonight against the Heat in Miami and will again be without Bosh.
Raptors guard Anthony Parker dunks over Orlando Magic guard Jameer Nelson. (John Raoux/AP)
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The 6-foot-11 Howard scored 12 of his 16 fourth-quarter points in the first six minutes of the period as the Magic extended its lead to 10 points.
"You can't give him dunks, especially in transition," Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said. "It's easy for me to say that. But for the guys who are guarding him, it's a load."
"They gave him some room finally and played him 1-on-1," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "There are just not very many guys that are going to be able to play him 1-on-1."
The Magic have won two of the three games between the teams this season.
Howard had three fouls in the first half, and five for the game.
"Overall, I thought for Dwight that was a great game and a good step forward," Van Gundy said. "Because in the past when he's had games like that with foul trouble, not getting the ball — three shots in the first half and one point — he's had trouble really staying into the game at times. And tonight he was fabulous. He got into the game."
"Patrick [Ewing, a Magic assistant coach] talked with me early in the game," said Howard, the first overall pick in the NBA's 2004 draft. "We had one game earlier in the season where I was really frustrated and it took me out of the whole game and he told me he didn't want to see that again. I've got to take a step forward for my team. And just try to go out there in the fourth quarter and stay composed and play my game."
Hedo Turkoglu of the Magic led all scorers with 24 points, followed by teammate Rashard Lewis with 22 points.
"Those two are just a tough matchup for us," Mitchell said.
T.J. Ford scored 20 points for Toronto but had seven turnovers. Anthony Parker had 19 points.
"We just couldn't score," Mitchell said. "It's hard to win on the road when you shoot 40 per cent. We came back and rebounded the ball."
Toronto had a 47-41 advantage in rebounds, including 12 on the offensive boards to Orlando's two. They were out-rebounded 50-37 in Sunday's 110-98 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats. The Bobcats had a 32-0 advantage in second-chance points on Sunday but last night the Raptors had a 4-3 advantage in that category.
But last night the shots didn't fall.
"We just didn't shoot the ball well for whatever reason," Parker said. "I just don't think we had a rhythm throughout the game as a team. I think we got some good looks, we shot 2-for-14 from the three, 40 per cent from the field total. … That hurt us. I thought we did a good job in the first half against Dwight. I think we did a decent job until late in the second half.
"He's just so physical. He just bumps into you and you come with the double team and hopefully it's early enough and in the early parts of the game we were better at it than later on."
"Just another tough night for us," said Ford, who scored 13 points in the fourth quarter. "I just try to take what the defence gives me. I think at some points in the game I got too aggressive and made some bad decisions."
