Magic hold off Hawks in Game 2

By Michael Cunningham

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ORLANDO — Dwight Howard had another dominant performance, and this time more of his teammates chipped in.

In the end, the Hawks couldn’t hold down Orlando’s shooters as Howard had his way with their centers. The Magic pulled away late for an 88-82 victory in Game 2 of the first-round Eastern Conference playoffs series.

Orlando’s Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu and Ryan Anderson all made timely 3-pointers in the second half. Those plays, plus Howard’s 33 points, were enough for the Magic to tie the series 1-1 as it moves to Philips Arena for Game 3 on Friday.

Howard scored 46 points in Game 1, but the Hawks won 103-93. He again was the focus of Orlando’s offense while making nine of 12 shots and 15 of 19 free-throw attempts.

Howard’s teammates made only 18 of 66 field-goal attempts, but scored just enough. The Hawks, meanwhile, couldn’t make enough plays against Orlando’s swarming defense.

“They turned up their defense, and we should have been able to handle that,” coach Larry Drew said. “It wasn’t anything that we didn’t expect. It forced is to lose our composure.”

The Magic twice led by 12 points in the fourth quarter. The Hawks were seemingly worn down from a physical game, but instead made one last attempt at a comeback.

Josh Smith made a running hook shot. Al Horford scored on a baseline drive, and Joe Johnson scored consecutive baskets to cut Orlando’s lead to 78-74 with 2:43 to play. Then Horford blocked Jameer Nelson’s shot, starting a fast break that ended with his dunk that made trimmed Orlando’s lead to 78-76.

The Magic answered with Turkoglu’s driving basket that nearly stopped on the bracket of the goal before falling through the basket. The Magic then rebounded Horford‘s miss leading to Jason Richardson’s 3-pointer that extended Orlando’s lead to 83-76.

The Magic made four of five free-throw attempts from there to hold off the Hawks.

“They cranked up their defense,” Hawks guard Kirk Hinrich said. “There were times we handled it well and times we didn’t. It just seemed like we got a little bogged down on offense. It wasn’t like Game 1 when we were moving the ball.”

The Hawks’ strategy of defending Howard straight-up worked well when Jason Collins was guarding him. Howard had four turnovers on his first four post-ups — Collins poked the ball away twice — and generally couldn’t get in a rhythm.

But the Hawks’ plan to slow Howard fell apart when Collins went to the bench. Howard powered past Josh Powell, Hilton Armstrong and Zaza Pachulia while scoring in the paint and earning a steady stream of trips to the free-throw line.

The Hawks also failed to find an alternative plan of attack when their jump shots stopped falling. The Magic sent double teams at Johnson, who couldn’t get to his sweep spots consistently, and Jamal Crawford (25 points, 8-of-17 shooting) was the only Hawks player making jumpers.

On a night in which the Magic outrebounded the Hawks 52-39, Drew said, “If we had just rebounded the ball then it might have been a different outcome.”