Slam Dunk Central

One more piece of evidence as to why Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard - warts and all - is the best center in the NBA: 33 points and 18 rebounds. Granted it was against a Charlotte Bobcat team that was thin in the frontcourt, but still Howard has been doing this against better teams. Howard’s dominance enabled the Magic to pound the Bobcats 103-87 at Charlotte Friday night.Prior to the game, Charlotte traded center Primo Brezec and forward Walter Herrmann to Detroit for forward-center Nazr Muhammed. Perhaps that explained why Howard had no problems with the Bobcat frontcourt. Charlotte shot just well enough to hold a 51-42 lead at halftime; included in that Bobcat lead was an 18-4 run which would be capped by Bobcat guard Raymond Felton’s jumper that would put Charlotte up 55-42.

But then Orlando forward Hedo Turkoglu hit consecutive 3-pointers and the Magic took over from that moment. The Magic lead would have been larger, but they missed 12 of its first 17 free throws - including Howard missing 8 of his first 9; but Howard would make his last 5. Orlando’s high scorer was Howard with a monster game; he scored 33 points, 18 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. Turkoglu added 22 while Jameer Nelson, Rashard Lewis and Keyon Dooling scored 13 apiece - with Lewis grabbing 11 boards. Charlotte was led by Felton with 18 points, while Emeka Okafor and Gerald Wallace added 16 each; Jason Richardson would add 15 in a losing effort. Orlando (17-7) returns home to host the Memphis Grizzlies Saturday night, while Charlotte (8-13) makes the short trip to Atlanta to face the Hawks - also on Saturday.