This season hasn’t been easy on Dwight Howard, with the trade talks and shots he’s taken via the media for being “selfish.” However Howard continues to remind us why he is so important to the Magic.
With his 14 point game Tuesday night against the Pacers, Howard became the Magic’s all time leading scorer.
“It’s a humbling experience,” said Howard, who began the game needing just eight points to break Nick Anderson’s mark. “It does mean a lot. Not too many players in this league can say that they were their franchise’s leading scorer.”
Ryan Anderson’s 24 points and 8 rebounds led the visiting Magic to a 102-83 victory handing Indiana their first home loss of the season.
“I just wanted to come in with a lot of energy tonight,” Anderson said. “We just took open shots. Getting key rebounds and being physical and getting fast break points, those are big for us.”
After leading 29-22 following the first quarter the Pacers offense became stagnant.
“We had poor offensive execution the whole game,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. “We know how to play. We’ve played good basketball all year and we didn’t tonight.”
Roy Hibbert and Danny Granger lead the Pacers (11-5) with 16 points a piece and Hibbert would also snag 12 rebounds.
Dwight picked up his third foul 24 seconds into the second period, sending him to the bench.
The score was tied 45-45 at intermission.
The second half was all Magic, out scoring the Pacers 57-38. The funny part is Orlando scored more in that half then they did all game against the Celtics this past Monday (56).
“Our effort was great,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. “Our energy was good and a lot of guys had a lot to do with us winning.”
Orlando (12-5) will get Thursday off before hosting the Boston Celtics Friday night, tip off set at 8pm.
