Everyone is talking about what is going to happen when the Magic lose Dwight Howard.

What will they get in return? Will the team remain competitive?

Who will step up as the de facto leader in the absence of the three time Defensive Player of the Year?

I believe that last one we have an answer to, at least. Ryan Anderson has quickly emerged as one of the best three point gunners in the NBA, and the look of satisifaction after he makes one, is tantamount to the proverbial “money shot.” It’s nice to see a player who enjoys his success that much without making an arse of his opposition by taunting them. After LeBron James jumped over John Lucas, he looked over his shoulder at Lucas as though he was supposed to do something, like prostrate himself before King James. Anderson and many of the NBA’s more humble stars don’t go for those kinds of theatrics.

Anderson is a legit star at this point and is now averaging exactly what I set the over/under at him on going into this season, 16.6 points per game. He started off red hot, leading the Magic in scoring, but has had some particularly poor performances off set the rest of his brilliance. On the 23rd, at Boston, Anderson scored 0, going 0 of 8 from the floor, including 0 of 4 from behind the arc. If you throw out that game, a 5 point game, and an 8 point game, his scoring average would be over a full point higher at 17.7 per game. I realize that is like saying “take away all of a player’s bad games and this is what he is,” but who cares. The point is that as long as a shooter like Anderson isn’t having a horrible night, he can still make a pretty big impact.

He did that last game against the Philadelphia 76ers, grabbing 20 boards in a game which the teams combined for only 143 points. The Magic failed to score 70 once again, and are beginning to draw serious criticism from around the league. How can a team go from dominating the likes of the Lakers, to losing badly to a New Orleans Hornets team without their best player in Eric Gordon?

I guess Howard is as good as gone at this point, but I’m placing my faith in Anderson. Will he carry the Magic to 50 wins? No, probably not, not unless the Magic get a decent compensation package for Howard, but Anderson could team up favorably with a good point guard if the Magic could land one in the deal. There has been talk of a Blake Griffin for Dwight Howard swap, but that is another article for another day.

Anderson would team favorably with a lot of players who could be on the block, because he doesn’t have to clog the paint and he stretches the court, which opens up passing lanes and driving lanes. When Anderson and teammate J.J. Redick get cookin’, the result is Jameer Nelson playing a lot better, and Dwight Howard drawing less aggressive double teams. Anderson’s impact on other players goes largely unnoticed though, because he averages less than one assist per game (0.7).

Maybe at some point Anderson will gain the ability to begin to create for teammates, most especially because he is a perimeter player. It was something Redick couldn’t do when he entered the league out of Duke, but since he has learned to pump fake and put the ball on the floor, and Anderson has shown an ability to do that at times too. The problem is that when Anderson does it, he doesn’t seem to keep his head up to the possibility of finding teammates. That may come in time.

All in all, with Anderson you are getting a guy who I compared to Troy Murphy in his prime with more upside back before the season began on November 30th. That projection has seemed to be deadly accurate, as Anderson is ranking in the top 10 in Fantasy Basketball leagues, for those who enjoy pure statistics as a measure of impact.

But Anderson has been good for some time. His offensive rating this year is 125, and it was 122 last year and his usage rate is 22%, which is very high for a non-guard. If he starts picking up assists, that number will further rise.

There are other things it would be nice to see from Anderson, but it may be asking too much. He doesn’t block many shots for a guy who stands a true 6’10″, but he has limited athleticism, and isn’t going to rise high above the rim and throw shots in the second row like his teammate Dwight Howard does.

But you can’t ask for everything. Anderson is already on his way to remaining a top power forward for a long time because he is only 23 years old, still many seasons away from hitting his true prime.

The Magic may lose Howard, but whatever they add to the mix to compliment Ryan Anderson very well may keep the Magic relevant—at least as a playoff team.

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PHILADELPHIA — Dwight Howard sat stone-faced near the end of the Orlando Magic bench as the final minutes ticked down Monday night inside the Wells Fargo Center. The Magic were about to lose their fourth consecutive game, and Howard must have hated what he was witnessing.

The final score — Philadelphia 74, Orlando 69 — does not reflect how just how poorly the Magic offense played. The team had only 51 points with three minutes remaining in regulation, and it looked like the club could set another single-game franchise low for points.

“Look, if a team doesn’t play hard, that’s one thing, but I thought our guys competed hard tonight,” coach Stan Van Gundy said. “And it’s my responsibility to find a way to create good shots for us, and I’m not running from that responsibility.”

But why has the team gone into freefall, losing four in a row and five of its last six?

Players and Van Gundy cite a demanding schedule in which they’ve held only one practice and played 10 games over the last 15 days. They also note that starting point guard Jameer Nelson has missed the last two games and that Jason Richardson sat out on Monday night because of continued weakness in his left knee.

Meanwhile, Van Gundy and Dwight Howard dismissed the notion that Howard’s uncertain future and trade request has created an adverse chain reaction on the rest of the team.

After the final buzzer, after facing questions from the press, Howard said his long-term plans and his criticism of teammates after a few losses do not impact the rest of the guys in the Magic locker room.

“When you step on the court, you have to play,” Howard said. “It doesn’t matter what anybody says. This is basketball. We love this game. We’re blessed. We’re doing something that we love. So that should not affect you when you get on the floor. It shouldn’t.

“These guys know how I feel about each and every one of them. These are my brothers regardless of what happens, and I’m going to give them 100 percent every night because I owe it to them. I owe to the city. I owe it to the team. That’s my job. That’s what I do. And I owe it to myself because I want to win, and I love this game.”

On Monday, Howard scored a team-high 17 points. But he, like most of his teammates, was not efficient. He went 6-for-17 from the field and 5-for-13 from the foul line.

He didn’t receive much help — at least not until it was too late.

J.J. Redick went 3-for-13.

Hedo Turkoglu was 1-for-9, and afterward, Van Gundy said Turkoglu “is pretty tired right now” and is almost out of gas.

With Turkoglu less than effective, and Nelson out, the Magic have lost two key components of their pick-and-roll game.

Ryan Anderson scored 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting and added a career-high 20 rebounds.

If there was a saving grace for Orlando (12-9) on Monday it was that Philadelphia (15-6) has one of the best defenses in the NBA.

The Sixers entered Monday limiting opponents to 87.0 points per game, the lowest average in the league, and just 41.8 percent shooting, the third-lowest percentage in the league.

Still, the Magic need to address their problems. Orlando now has failed to score at least 20 points in 11 of its last 14 quarters, a streak that dates back to the second half of last Thursday’s heartbreaking defeat to the Boston Celtics.

In Monday’s third quarter, Orlando made only three baskets, all of them by Howard.

“Effort on both ends of the court,” Anderson said when asked what happened in the period and in others like it.

“I think we have all the tools. We can play well. We know how to play. I just think we’re coming out and our effort just isn’t really there the way we know it can be.”

jbrobbins@tribune.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog. Subscribe to our Orlando Magic newsletter at OrlandoSentinel.com/joinus.

The Philadelphia 76ers are finally starting a stretch that will prove if they are for real or not. Sixers fans like myself will see the team face the Orlando Magic, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Clippers in succession. However, the Sixers may have already gotten a break by starting this killer stretch against an elite team in dire straits.

Just a week ago, the Magic were right up there with the Heat and Hawks in the Southeast Division and appeared set to make one more run at enticing Dwight Howard to stay. But Orlando is heading into Philadelphia on Jan. 30 on the heels of an abysmal stretch of losses – which could help the Sixers jump out to the good start they need to this two-week period.

Since Jan. 23, the Magic have lost two horrific games to the Boston Celtics, were destroyed by the then 3-15 New Orleans Hornets and just got blown out at home to the Indiana Pacers on Jan. 29. If the Sixers had played the Magic seven days earlier, it would have looked like a much more daunting task to beat them. Instead, Philadelphia seems to have gotten yet another break on its schedule – or so it would appear.

Orlando seems to be tailor made for Philadelphia at the moment, as it is a struggling opponent that has had a hard time scoring lately. In addition, the Magic have been utterly abysmal in the second half recently, which they proved again by scoring only 34 points after halftime against the Pacers. Given that the Sixers always seem to pull away from flailing opponents after halftime, this bodes quite well.

The Sixers aren’t going to get this kind of golden opportunity from the other elite foes on their schedule, since the Bulls, Heat and Hawks are not falling apart like the Magic are. But if Philadelphia can’t kick Orlando while it is down, standing up to the likes of Chicago and Miami will be that much tougher. There still isn’t an easy opponent for the Sixers over the next seven games, yet the Magic have become the closest thing to that in the last week.

Philadelphia is 14-6 right now because it has taken advantage of its opposition’s weaknesses and struggles. Orlando isn’t as hopeless as the Detroit Pistons, Charlotte Bobcats and Washington Wizards, of course, so the Magic can flip the switch back on a little easier. Yet if the Sixers want these next two revealing weeks to go well, keeping the good Orlando team from returning will be a good opening step in the right direction.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident and 76ers fan.

Other stories from this contributor

Knicks continue their self-destruction with poor weekend

76ers close preseason with another blowout over Pistons

76ers easily avoid first losing streak of 2012 again

Celtics get second much needed boost over Magic

76ers need to throttle bottom feeders again this weekend

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Something ails the Orlando Magic.

Is it fatigue created by a brutal schedule? Or is something deeper at work?

Whatever the case, the team looks awful right now.

The Magic lost for the fourth time in five games Sunday, falling 106-85 on their home floor to the Indiana Pacers. Even Orlando’s normally placid fans rained boos down on the Magic during the final period, and the crowd had plenty of reasons to feel frustrated. The defense looked uninterested at times. The offense struggled to protect the ball. And, worst of all, the Pacers flat-out outhustled the Magic.

“We’re in a real tough stretch,” coach Stan Van Gundy said. “We’re playing very poorly. Guys know it, and we’ve got to fight through it. I don’t know what else we can do.”

His team looks to be in freefall right now. In the last four losses, the Magic were clobbered by 31 points by the Boston Celtics, relinquished a 27-point lead to Boston, were routed by 26 by the hapless New Orleans Hornets and were annihilated by 21 by the Pacers.

Tough to believe the Magic held an 11-4 record on Jan. 20.

“I wish I could pinpoint one thing,” J.J. Redick said. “I wish that there was an algebraic equation and it had a final answer, but it doesn’t.”

He’s right.

Problems have arisen on all fronts.

There’s the offense. The Magic have failed to score more than 19 points in eight of their last 10 quarters of play.

There’s the defense. On Sunday, Orlando had so many defensive breakdowns that the Pacers made more than half their shots and scored 56 points in the paint.

There’s also an energy problem, and maybe that should cause more concern than anything else.

Although the Magic overcame a 15-point deficit in the second quarter to lead 51-48 at halftime, they collapsed in the third period.

“I thought that our guys came out with good energy, fought back with good energy,” Van Gundy said. “I can’t explain it coming out to start the third quarter, but we just had absolutely nothing.”

Indiana’s Danny Granger scored nine of his team-high 24 points in the third, and the Pacers made almost 64 percent of their shots.

Dwight Howard scored a team-high 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting. But he also missed 11 of his 15 free-throw attempts, and his continued struggles at the line prevent him from being a bona fide go-to guy when his teammates struggle.

And there was a lot of struggling going on.

With starting point guard Jameer Nelson out with a probable concussion, the Magic committed 19 total turnovers — 14 in the game’s first 17 minutes — and the team encounters difficulty just bringing the ball upcourt these days.

Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson and Ryan Anderson totaled just seven points in the entire second half.