Dwight Howard helps lift the Magic over the Heat
The Orlando Magic defeated the Miami Heat 102-89 Wednesday night.
Dwight Howard’s monster night (25 points and 24 rebounds) lead the Magic to victory.
The Magic got off to a hot start, outscoring the Heat 26-18 in the first quarter and never looked back. The Magic sunk 17 3-pointers on the night. Ryan Anderson led the 3 point shooting hitting a team high of 5. He finished the night with 27 points and 11 rebounds. Anderson, in a quote from ESPN, explained the team’s energy during the night.
“If somebody starts rolling, then all the attention’s going to be on them. Then we’ll swing it around and we’ve got another shooter,” Anderson said. “I think when the crowd gets into it, when we have great energy as a team and we’re being really unselfish and moving the ball, it is contagious.”
LeBron had an off night shooting, going 5-15 from the field (.333). His fg% sits .553 for the season, so tonight was definitely not his night. Wade took over the scoring for the night. He scored 33 points while making 15 of 24 from the field. After the game Spoelstra had this to say:
“They set the tone this game, right from the get-go. We were able to get into a little bit more of an aggressiveness and attack. A little bit more of a disposition in the second quarter, but they were able to sustain it longer and more consistently than we were able to.”
Two of the biggest NBA story-lines this year have been: Howard’s unhappiness in Orlando and whether or not the Heat will get back to the finals. This game seemed to show that the Heat still have some work to do. Orlando has lacked leadership and energy all season because of the situation with Howard, yet the Heat could not beat them. On the other hand, the Magic seem to still be a very good team. This leaves me wondering why Howard wants out of Orlando so bad, as well as what is going on with the Heat. Only time will tell. . . or perhaps their next games.
The Magic’s (16-10) next game is against the Hawks and the Heat’s (19-7) next game is against the Nets. Both games are Friday, February 10th at 7:00pm.
