Dwight Howard collected 33 points on 11-of-15 shooting and went 11 of 13 from the free-throw line as the visiting Orlando Magic earned their fourth straight win, 111-99, over the New York Knicks on Wednesday.
Howard chipped in 11 rebounds, Hedo Turkoglu added 16 points and 11 boards while Jameer Nelson scored 19 points for the Magic, who outscored the Knicks 32-21 in the fourth quarter.
New York (35-36) has lost four straight to fall below .500 for the first time since owning an 8-9 record on Nov. 27.
The Knicks held a 59-55 lead at the half and were up 69-61 at the 7:26 mark of the third quarter before some of their recent problems came back to haunt them on the defensive end. Jason Richardson drained a 3-pointer for Orlando and Brandon Bass dunked in transition to spark a 19-9 run through the end of the quarter, putting the Magic up 79-78 heading into the fourth.
New York briefly took the lead back but Gilbert Arenas scored six points and Richardson hit a 3-pointer during a 9-0 run over the next three minutes to put Orlando up for good.
Carmelo Anthony scored 24 points while Amar’e Stoudemire was held to 13 on 6-of-20 shooting for the Knicks.
Orlando | New York | |
Dwight Howard 33 | Scoring | Carmelo Anthony 24 |
Jameer Nelson 4 | Assists | Carmelo Anthony 9 |
Dwight Howard 11 | Rebounds | Amar'e Stoudemire 7 |
Dwight Howard 11 | Free Throws Made | Carmelo Anthony 10 |
Quentin Richardson 2 | Steals | Carmelo Anthony 2 |
Dwight Howard 3 | Blocks | Shawne Williams 3 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Orlando | 111 | 48.7 | 12-25 | 25-28 | 17 | 49 | 6 | 6 | 15 |
New York | 99 | 40.5 | 12-28 | 19-24 | 20 | 35 | 5 | 6 | 11 |