Even when most of their roster was healthy, the Orlando Magic struggled recently against the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks had won nine of the teams’ previous 11 regular-season and postseason games entering their matchup Friday night — and Dwight Howard had played in all of those games.
Things turned ugly without Howard on Friday.
In what could be a preview of the remainder of Orlando’s season now that Howard has been diagnosed with a herniated disk in his lower back, the Hawks dominated the Magic 109-81 at Amway Center.
Nothing worked for Orlando. Not the offense. And especially not the defense, which allowed the Hawks to make 75 percent of their shots in the first quarter and just over 50 percent of their shots for the entire game.
“It was a very, very poor defensive effort,” coach Stan Van Gundy said.
“I just told ‘em after the game, ‘Run back.’ I was really, really upset, especially with our starters in the first quarter. [They] just did not bring anything to that game in what we needed, and I told them that. We didn’t run back. We didn’t get matched up. They got too many easy shots. There was no excuse for what happened in that first quarter.”
Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and Marvin Williams finished with 16 points apiece. Reserve point guard Jannero Pargo scored a game-high 17 points.
“We just didn’t do anything right tonight,” Magic wing Jason Richardson said. “No excuses.”
Glen Davis, who replaced Howard in the Magic lineup, scored 16 points on 8-of-13 shooting and added nine rebounds.
The Magic (34-25) need to find some traction — and quickly.
They lead the seventh-place New York Knicks and the eighth-place Philadelphia 76ers by three games and hold a 5½-game lead over the ninth-place Milwaukee Bucks.
The Magic showed decent effort at times against the Hawks (35-24).
On one sequence in the first quarter, Davis delivered a bone-crunching screen to Smith that sent the 6-foot-9, 225-pound Smith to Amway Center’s parquet floor.
A few seconds later, Richardson sprinted down the court to block Zaza Pachulia’s layup attempt on a fastbreak. Richardson grabbed the ball, passed it ahead to Von Wafer, who sent it to Davis for a fastbreak layup. The score cut Atlanta’s lead to 25-20.
But the Hawks would finish the first period 15 for 20 from the field.
“We didn’t let up because Dwight wasn’t playing,” Smith said.
Atlanta’s shooters cooled off in the second quarter, shooting just 37 percent, but the Hawks maintained their momentum because the Magic shot only 32 percent from the field.
It was a rotten first half.
Quentin Richardson’s face absorbed what appeared to be an accidental left forearm from Pachulia as they both went for a loose ball with 4:53 remaining in the half. Richardson looked dazed, left the court with athletic trainer Keon Weise and did not return to the game.
Late in the half, Van Gundy received his first technical foul of the season. With Orlando trailing 61-42, a referee whistled Wafer for a questionable offensive foul after Wafer simply appeared to take a baseline jumper.
Van Gundy complained, and those gripes generated the technical.
The Hawks finished the half with 62 points — the highest point total for a Magic opponent in a first half this season and just one point shy of the highest point total by a Magic opponent in any half this season.
“They give us problems with or without Dwight,” Jason Richardson said.
True.
But without Howard, those problems were even more severe.
jbrobbins@tribune.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog. Subscribe to our Orlando Magic newsletter at OrlandoSentinel.com/joinus.
Running low on time today, i’ll be back tomorrow hopefully with some more news.
