Orlando blows out Hawks

Orlando — Forget challenging Orlando for the Southeast Division title this season.

The Hawks better hope they don’t get tossed out of the division on their wings after a meltdown of epic proportions in a mind-boggling 121-87 loss to the Magic on Friday night at Amway Arena.

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AP

Dwight Howard and the Magic handed the Hawks their worst loss of the season Friday night in Orlando.

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It was by far the Hawks’ worst loss of the season and equals the worst loss of the Mike Woodson era; the Hawks’ lost 110-76 at Cleveland on April 14, 2007.

“They just beat the [expletive] out of us,” Hawks point guard Mike Bibby said. “They were making shots, and that took so much steam out of us early on because we weren’t — and we never recovered.”

With the Magic anxious to finish what they started in a closer-than-it-should-have-been 106-102 victory over the Hawks on Wednesday at Philips Arena, the Hawks got caught with a right hook they never saw coming — a 41-point first-quarter barrage led by JJ Redick’s 11 points off the bench — and didn’t regained consciousness in time to actually make this a game.

They trailed 22-4 only minutes into the game, 41-18 after the first quarter, by as many as 39 points in the second quarter and 71-33 at halftime in a game that was out of hand long before most of the sellout crowd of 17,461 had settled comfortably into their seats.

The Magic lead ballooned to as many as 50 points in the second half, and they finished with six starters in double figures, led by Hedo Turkoglu’s 21 points, which included a 5-for-5 effort from beyond the 3-point line.

And the Magic didn’t hesitate to pour it on, with half of their 16 successful 3-point shots coming in the second half, and they continually threw lobs for alley-oops long after the game was already out of hand.

“That was a totally unacceptable performance,” said Hawks coach Mike Woodson, who not only watched his team get dismantled but also saw his starting center, Al Horford, get elbowed in the face in the first half and then injure his right knee in the second. “They just had their way with us from start to finish.”

Friday’s first-half implosion isn’t even the Hawks’ most egregious defensive effort in this building. The Magic ravaged them for 73 first-half points last March 10 in a 123-112 Hawks loss.

The Hawks trailed by 21 points at halftime of that game and never got closer than 10 in the second half, making Friday night’s uninspired effort their new low-point on the Magic’s home floor.

But the Hawks (22-13) weren’t attempting to challenge the Magic, who at 29-8 are fighting with Cleveland and Boston for the top spot in the Eastern Conference, for division supremacy back then.

“This season’s been great so far but to lose like this,” Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson said after his short night. “They just came out form the gate and hit us, and we never hit back. We never stepped up to the challenge. And with the season we’re having, we’ve played pretty well until the last couple of nights … we just have to put this one behind us and move forward.”

If the Hawks are serious about competing against this Magic team, they’ll have to maintain their composure better than they did Friday night.

Woodson, Johnson and Josh Smith were all whistled for technical fouls before halftime — the Hawks also picked up another one for a delay of game with 3:01 to play in the first quarter when Solomon Jones checked into the game without his jersey tucked in, their second delay of game warning.

Jones added a flagrant foul with 2:46 to play in the third quarter when he shoved Dwight Howard to the ground as Howard jumped to grab a lob for a dunk with the Magic cruising with a 99-51 lead.

“Things got a little crazy,” Smith said. “I think that was just frustration boiling over. But we can’t dwell on this game. We have to put it behind us and get ready to play against Philadelphia on Sunday [at Philips Arena].”