It’s a sad state of affairs in the Eastern Conference when sixth ranked Orlando Magic barely held their head above water from beginning to end against the Washington Wizards who have only won 4 games this season. Maybe the lockout was too long and the players are tired? The fans were a bit lackluster in the Amway Center Wednesday night. Or possibly people were expecting the Magic to do their thing and beat the Wizards with one hand behind their back.

Live scoreboard at Amway Center – Magic vs Wizards Feb 1, 2012.
Monica Lehua

Is Anderson the next Howard?

I’m not sure but the comical antics of our surrounding fans were much more entertaining than most of the game. It wasn’t as if there weren’t a few good plays. Dwight Howard made a nice show-off of a slam dunk. However, even though he scored 21 points and 18 rebounds, the cheers were louder for Ryan Anderson whenever he stepped on the courts. Anderson was the high scorer with 23 and J.J. Redick, another crowd favorite mimicked Howards 21 points.

It’s possible that Orlando fans have decided they need to change who they are going to cheer for in the future since Howard has basically said he doesn’t want to be in Orlando. In addition, off the court and in the ear shot of reporters Howard is constantly quoted belittling his teammates – yea, way to go to boost morale, kick your teammates when they are already down. Basically Howard has a foot out the Amway Center door and his comments are loud and clear to Orlando fans – thus you can sense the loyalty of fans changing gears.

Orlando Struggles to Hold On

As usually the crowd began to leave the arena with just two minutes left in the game, Orlando had a tiny lead up by six. We weren’t going to try to beat the crowd, it was too easy for the Magic to make a mistake; they had been struggling all night. Fortunately both sides kept using their time outs and Hedo Turkoglu and Redick’s free throws added a few more points to seal the deal in the final minutes. Orlando’s defense held up and they broke loose from their losing streak. We’ll be holding our breath for Thursday’s game in Indiana at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse as Orlando faces the Pacer’s at 7 p.m. ET.

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Dwight Howard is apparently hurting Jameer Nelson‘s feelings.

What a meanie.

Orlando Magic general manager Otis Smith has been through a lot with the Howard saga over the past two seasons, and on Friday he said that the issue has finally trickled down from the front office to the players. The distractions of Howard’s impending free agency and rumblings of his desire to play with Nets point guard Deron Williams are partly to blame for the underwhelming play of Nelson this season, Smith reasoned.

“You spend time talking about Chris Paul or Deron Williams, but what position do they play?” Smith said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s the same position that [Nelson] plays. So it’s not necessarily that [Howard] is directly throwing him under the bus, but he’s indirectly throwing him under the bus.”

On the surface, this looks like a defense of Nelson, whose scoring, field goal attempts and free throw attempts per game have plummeted since his All-Star season of 2008-09. Is it really, though? Smith is saying, in essence, that Nelson is a kid who can have his feelings hurt by blasphemous talk that he might not be the best point guard in the world.

At last check, Nelson, 29, was a grown man who played four seasons at Saint Joseph’s University, won the Naismith and Wooden awards as a senior, and has played in the NBA for eight seasons, including 39 playoff games. He is married and has a son, nicknamed “Deuce,” and he bravely faced the death of his father, who in 2007 was found floating in the Delaware River in Chester, Pa.

Nelson has dealt with a lot worse than a teammate wanting to walk as a free agent. He’s not playing well this season — in fact, he’s been terrible — but it’s not because of indirect speculation that Williams might be a little better than he is.

We point this out only to note that, on the most important matter of all, Smith has expertly played a potentially explosive situation. He’s done so simply by not trading Howard, who visits Boston on Monday night to take on the Celtics.

Orlando is the best place for Howard, even if he doesn’t fully realize it. 

It’s unclear what star players such as Howard envision awaits them in new locales. The Magic have spent seven years building their team around Howard, surrounding him with dangerous 3-point shooters, rugged rebounders and a point guard who has probably sacrificed his own statistics to accomodate Howard, the best big man in the game.

The other supposed suitors have, what? Howard supposedly dreams to teaming up with Williams on the Nets, but has he looked at the rest of that roster? Playing for the Lakers sounds nice until he realizes that, without Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum (at least one of whom, if not both, would have to be sent to Orlando in any trade), the Lakers are a lot like the Magic, only with a constantly disgruntled Kobe Bryant to tolerate.

With Howard, the Magic are 11-4 and arguably have better team chemistry than any of the Eastern Conference’s elite teams, save Chicago. (The 76ers and Pacers may top them all, but for now let’s hold off on calling Philly or Indy “elite.”)

Smith and the Magic clearly recognize that by keeping Howard, they stand a reasonable chance of making their second NBA Finals appearance in four years. The “trade him or he’ll leave for nothing” logic is outdated. The collective bargaining agreement gives players favorable terms for re-signing with their old teams, so most notable free agents take part in sign-and-trades. The Celtics recently exercised this option to sign unrestricted free agent Glen Davis before shipping him to Orlando for Brandon Bass.

To recap the Magic’s current options:

Keep Howard: They maintain one of the top four spots in the Eastern Conference, possibly make a deep playoff run and, at worst, sign-and-trade Howard this offseason for several young players and draft picks.

Trade Howard: First off, they lose the most dominant interior force in the NBA; plummet to the bottom of the standings; waste half a season of their young talent’s development when the coaching staff inevitably would get cleared out after a dispiriting campaign; watch those draft picks they acquired fall to the end of the first round, because Howard will single-handedly yank his new team out of the draft lottery.

Either Smith, who has made some questionable deals in attempts to keep Howard in Orlando (Hello, Gilbert Arenas!), knows this or he has advisors reminding him of this. The Magic are better for now and for the near future with Howard, and Howard will be better in the short term and in the long run as a member of the Magic.

This should be the type of disappointment even Nelson can overcome.

Rashard Lewis found himself in a familiar place Tuesday afternoon.

He practiced with his current team, the Washington Wizards, on the Amway Center practice court he once used with his old team, the Orlando Magic. Four of the banners that he helped the Magic win still hang on the walls. A few pictures of him still adorn the Magic weight room.

“It just brings a smile back to my face,” Lewis said afterward as he looked at the 2008-09 Eastern Conference championship banner.

Fans probably will see that familiar grin when Lewis’ Wizards face the Magic tonight at Amway Center. It will be Lewis’ first game at the arena as a player since he was traded to Washington for Gilbert Arenas on Dec. 18, 2010.

Lewis has adjusted.

Finally.

In an interview Tuesday, as he sat in his old team’s practice gym, Lewis revealed that it took him months to come to terms with the blockbuster trade. He went from a team with legitimate NBA title aspirations to a team headed for the NBA lottery. And although he had heard rumors that a trade was in the offing, the deal still caught him by surprise.

“At the time, when the trade happened, it was a blow,” Lewis recalled.

“It was a huge blow. My main focus was to try and win the NBA championship for the city of Orlando. We got close one year. We’d been to the Eastern Conference finals the year after that. It was nothing but good times here when we were winning ballgames, and I put everything into trying to bring a championship for this city and for this team. It just seemed like it came crashing down all in one day.”

On Dec. 17, the day before the deal, the Magic organization hosted 55 families from a nearby youth center for a holiday party at Amway Center. Players gave the kids brand-new, gleaming bicycles. The team set up activities on the arena grounds. Everything seemed just fine.

The next morning, everything felt different when the team gathered for its shootaround to prepare for that night’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers.

“I woke up that morning and I kind of heard the rumors of a trade, but you always hear rumors of a million different trades or a million different things that go on in the NBA,” Lewis said. “I didn’t talk to the coach about it. I didn’t talk to the GM [Otis Smith]. Nobody told me nothing.

“I came to the shootaround in the morning, and the vibe was weird. It was different at that shootaround that morning. Some guys were laughing and upbeat; maybe they knew about the trade, I don’t know. It was just a different vibe.

“Then, when I left to go home, I ate my pregame meal and took a nap. My phone started ringing while I was asleep; I woke up and looked at my phone and I saw it was Otis calling. I pretty much knew what happened just by seeing him call.”

Lewis didn’t answer his phone right away.

He wanted to speak to his agent, Tony Dutt, before he talked with Smith.

It was official. Lewis had been traded for Arenas.

And, in a separate deal, the Magic sent Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus, a first-round draft pick and cash to Phoenix for Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu and Earl Clark.

Lewis said what made it tough was that he didn’t have time to prepare. He had no inkling that he was on the trading block.

ORLANDO — If the Orlando Magic’s 2010-11 season were likened to a fairy tale, it would probably be a mix of “The Wizard of Oz” and “Alice in Wonderland.”

In December, the Magic’s championship journey was detoured by a massive trade that altered their roster. Then, in the second half of the schedule, injuries, inconsistency and other growing pains left a team that made the NBA Finals two years ago feeling like it was trudging through some strange world.

Tonight, Orlando opens the playoffs against a team it swept out of the Eastern Conference semifinals a year ago. But this time, the Magic face a Hawks squad that has had its number this season.

“They got a lot of the same guys, but as far as the way they play against us, it’s a lot different,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said of Atlanta, which has beaten Orlando in three out of four meetings in 2010-11.

The Hawks jettisoned point guard Mike Bibby in favor of Kirk Hinrich in a February trade with Washington. They also moved Jason Collins to center and Al Horford to power forward, allowing Horford a lot more flexibility on the offensive end.

Horford is averaging a career-best 15.3 points overall and 16.3 in the four games against Orlando. Collins, by guarding Dwight Howard, has allowed Horford to avoid foul trouble.

Howard and the Magic have suffered offensively against Atlanta.

As a team, Orlando is averaging 82.5 points per game, below its season average of 99.2 points.

“That’s not us. We want to be high 90s, low 100s,” point guard Jameer Nelson said. “If we could score 200, that would be great.”

Howard’s individual output has also waned. After going 10-for-20 and scoring 27 points in the Nov. 8 win against Atlanta, he was held below 50 percent shooting in the final three games and shot 43 percent overall.

“The three games that they beat us in, the pace was slow and we played to their liking,” Howard said. “In order to beat these guys, we have to run and we have to move.”

Nelson said that though this playoff run begins with only four players (Nelson, Howard, Redick and Hedo Turkoglu) that were on the roster for the NBA Finals run two years ago, he has plenty of confidence in this new group.

“It’s fun. I’ve done it numerous times now, and on different teams in terms of personnel,” Nelson said. “One thing I know is we have winners on this team. . . . We’re hard to beat when we play the right way.”

The Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks are slated to play Game 1 at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

We’re one day from the start of the NBA playoffs, meaning we’re in official playoff preview mode. In today’s links we have all sorts of previews for the Magic-Hawks series, the Amway Center’s noise level is discussed and Jameer Nelson says something to irk the Hawks.

1. Homecourt disadvantage? Magic players hope Amway Center is loud for playoffs, Josh Robbins, Orlando Sentinel

The Buzz: The Amway Center was quieter than the old Amway Arena during the regular season. Will the playoffs be any different?

2. Atlanta Hawks playing better defense than last season, Zach McCann, Orlando Sentinel

The Buzz: The Hawks are longer and better at defending three-pointers this year compared to last.

3. Magic mantra: Eastern Conference finals or bust! Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel

The Buzz: Bianchi says the Magic reaching the Eastern Conference Finals would make this season a success.

4. Magic mania revs up as playoff season arrives, Jon Busdeker, Orlando Sentinel

The Buzz: The community’s supporting the Magic and showing it on their faces.

5. Jameer Nelson’s ‘comment’ irks Hawks, Brian Schmitz, Orlando Sentinel

The Buzz: Nelson accidentally gave the Hawks some bulletin board material last week against the Bulls.

6. Orlando Magic vs. Atlanta Hawks Playoff Preview: Jason Collins’ Defense vs. Dwight Howard’s Offense, Evan Dunlap, Orlando Pinstriped Post

The Buzz: Here are the numbers you need to know heading into the playoff series.

7. How they can win it all: The Orlando Magic, Matt Moore, CBSSports.com

The Buzz: The Magic winning it all is possible, but a lot has to go right.

8. Previewing the Orlando Magic’s first round series with Synergy, Matt Scribbins, MagicBasketball.net

The Buzz: If you’re wondering how to attack the Hawks, check out the numbers in this post.

9. (4) Orlando Magic vs. (5) Atlanta Hawks, Chris Mannix, Sports Illustrated

The Buzz: Here’s the SI preview for the series.

10. This would be good time for Hawks to knock somebody down, Jeff Schultz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Buzz: The Hawks will have to dig deep to defeat the Magic.

The Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks are slated to play Game 1 at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

We’re one day from the start of the NBA playoffs, meaning we’re in official playoff preview mode. In today’s links we have all sorts of previews for the Magic-Hawks series, the Amway Center’s noise level is discussed and Jameer Nelson says something to irk the Hawks.

1. Homecourt disadvantage? Magic players hope Amway Center is loud for playoffs, Josh Robbins, Orlando Sentinel

The Buzz: The Amway Center was quieter than the old Amway Arena during the regular season. Will the playoffs be any different?

2. Atlanta Hawks playing better defense than last season, Zach McCann, Orlando Sentinel

The Buzz: The Hawks are longer and better at defending three-pointers this year compared to last.

3. Magic mantra: Eastern Conference finals or bust! Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel

The Buzz: Bianchi says the Magic reaching the Eastern Conference Finals would make this season a success.

4. Magic mania revs up as playoff season arrives, Jon Busdeker, Orlando Sentinel

The Buzz: The community’s supporting the Magic and showing it on their faces.

5. Jameer Nelson’s ‘comment’ irks Hawks, Brian Schmitz, Orlando Sentinel

The Buzz: Nelson accidentally gave the Hawks some bulletin board material last week against the Bulls.

6. Orlando Magic vs. Atlanta Hawks Playoff Preview: Jason Collins’ Defense vs. Dwight Howard’s Offense, Evan Dunlap, Orlando Pinstriped Post

The Buzz: Here are the numbers you need to know heading into the playoff series.

7. How they can win it all: The Orlando Magic, Matt Moore, CBSSports.com

The Buzz: The Magic winning it all is possible, but a lot has to go right.

8. Previewing the Orlando Magic’s first round series with Synergy, Matt Scribbins, MagicBasketball.net

The Buzz: If you’re wondering how to attack the Hawks, check out the numbers in this post.

9. (4) Orlando Magic vs. (5) Atlanta Hawks, Chris Mannix, Sports Illustrated

The Buzz: Here’s the SI preview for the series.

10. This would be good time for Hawks to knock somebody down, Jeff Schultz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Buzz: The Hawks will have to dig deep to defeat the Magic.

Will Dwight Howard still be smiling at the end of the season?

What constitutes a good playoff run for the Orlando Magic?

One and done, assuming they beat the Atlanta Hawks in the first round?

A strong showing against the Chicago Bulls _ unless there is an apocalyptic upset by Indiana in the first round? Beating the Bulls?

Nothing short of an NBA title run?

Perception vs. reality may be a tough deal for Magic fans to accept.

No question they will be rooting hard for the home team, which has advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals the last two seasons. But there is a different vibe about this team, and not necessarily a good one.

Despite another 50-victory run during the regular-season, the Magic have regressed while their top division rivals have improved. Orlando won 59 games in the regular season a year ago. They stand at 51 victories now, with one last game left against Indiana Wednesday night.

Boston is plus five. Atlanta is plus nine. Miami is plus 10. Chicago is plus 19.

Based on the statistical evidence, the Magic are a strong team but no better than a fourth-seed in the East.

Could they make a run like the Celtics did last season, when they were seeded fourth? Sure, but a lot of variables have to fall into place. Cutting down on senseless turnovers, avoiding long stagnant runs on offense, and of course anger management issues with Dwight Howard are critical to the Magic sustaining a run playoff run. The technicals will reset fopr the playoffs, but still, Howard can’t allow his emotions to get the best of him.

The players say they are ready to roll and can flip a switch to take it to the next level during the playoffs.

I remain a bit skeptical about that until the ball starts bouncing the weekend.

What say you, Magic fans?

What constitutes a strong playoff run for the Orlando Magic?customer surveys

Dwight Howard, one of the NBA’s most well-known players and Orlando’s biggest celebrity, finds himself in a bit of an identity crisis.

From grade school to AAU to the NBA, he’s always been his fun-loving self on the basketball court, known for his wide smile and good-natured ribbing as much as his unmatched athleticism and ferocious dunks.

Howard’s most memorable NBA highlights are generally followed with him smiling and jumping around like a joyous little kid, a cosmic difference from how some of the NBA’s other superstars conduct themselves on the court in the Be-Like-Mike era.

But coming into this season, after years of criticism from outsiders that he doesn’t take the game seriously enough, Howard made a pledge to be more businesslike in his approach.

He smiled less in practice. The Magic’s Globetrotter-like pre-game routine, nicknamed “The Magic Show,” was canceled. And his new serious outlook became the talk of the preseason, even earning praise from Magic GM Otis Smith for his new-found attitude.

But now, as the Magic are about to play their final game of the regular season Wednesday night against the Indiana Pacers, that self-started seriousness has worn off, and Howard says he’s going to be himself — the same, goofy guy he’s always been — from here on out.

“I think I allowed people telling me because I smile so much and have fun on the court, that I’m not serious about the game of basketball,” he said. “I allowed it to seep into my head and change the way I play.”

It’s clear that Howard has had less fun on the court this season, despite enjoying the best individual year of his career. He’s the NBA’s runaway leader in technical fouls with 18 — consequently serving two separate one-game suspensions. He often appears visibly frustrated with the referees and, at times, his teammates.

Howard wants that consternation to stop. He wants to have fun, like when the Magic beat the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals in ’09 and after the game Howard yelled to the locker room, “I’m too nice! I smile too much!”

“I just felt like… Why am I trying to not smile or do what I did in previous seasons?” Howard said. “Why am I doing this to myself? I think people enjoy the way I play because of some of the things I do on the court. Besides me going out there on the court and playing hard, I do like to smile. And the fact that I am interactive with fans and kids on the court; I just can’t allow anything to keep me away from it.”

That’s the way his teammates want him to be.

“He’s gotta be himself, he’s gotta be funny, and we need him to be funny,” Jameer Nelson said. “We need him to be who he is and act the way he does. It keeps us loose and keeps us going.”

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, however, said Howard needs to find the balance between being too goofy and too serious — and Howard is still learning to achieve that balance.

“Dwight can be loose and a little goofy at times and it is hard to say that it’s affecting his play because you just look at what he’s done this year, but it affects his teammates,” Van Gundy said. “It affects their preparation and it affects their play. So, I think he’s got to be able to weigh those two things.”

Howard’s work ethic can’t be questioned, as he’s improved every year in the NBA and blossomed into the league’s premier big man. He certainly leads by example in that way.

He wants to be remembered as a great center who played the game the right way, someone who took his sport seriously but also provided entertainment to fans. And he doesn’t want to be known as a notorious bad boy, a Rasheed Wallace with a nicer face and without the bald spot.

Howard insists he’s a nice, fun-loving guy and he wants that to show on the court.

Says Howard: “I don’t want people to get the wrong idea about me.”

zmccann@orlandosentinel.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog.

The matchup Sunday between the Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic had the potential to be a preview of a possible second-round playoff pairing between two of the Eastern Conference’s top four teams.

Instead, with the Magic missing several pieces, it wound up providing the latest reason why Chicago’s Derrick Rose could be inching closer to his first MVP award.

Rose had 39 points and five assists, and Luol Deng added 15 points to help the Bulls hold off the Magic 102-99. Rose also was 10 for 10 at the foul line, which proved to be vital in staving off a late Magic charge.

Orlando’s Jameer Nelson appeared to tie it with a 3-pointer at the buzzer, but an official review upheld an initial call of no basket. Ryan Anderson led the Magic with a career-high 28 points, Jason Richardson added 24 and Nelson had 17.

“We had them,” Rose said. “We should have easily put them away. But we continue to let teams come back. It’s going to hurt us if we continue to do this. But we’re definitely happy with this win. We’ve got to learn how to put teams away.”

Chicago won its seventh in a row and for the 19th time in 21 games. The Bulls also kept alive their chances of finishing with the NBA’s best record, which would give them home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

“They played extremely well. It wasn’t a good game for us,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Our defense wasn’t very good, our rebounding was below average and we didn’t take care of the ball. We were fortunate (to) win.”

The Magic dropped to 1-3 without center Dwight Howard. He sat out Sunday, serving his second suspension of the season after picking up his 18th technical foul.

The possible playoff preview was spoiled not only by Howard’s absence, but also that of Magic sixth man J.J. Redick and reserve Quentin Richardson. Redick missed his 15th straight game with a lower abdominal strain. Richardson served the first of a two-game suspension for shoving Charlotte’s Gerald Henderson in the face in last week’s win over the Bobcats.

But thanks to hot outside shooting, the Magic didn’t seem to miss a beat without them.

Chicago led just 80-77 entering the fourth quarter, after fighting off several runs by Orlando in the third.

The Magic forced six ties over the first eight minutes of the final period before Brandon Bass’ free throw and Jason Richardson’s layup gave the Magic a 94-91 lead with 2:46 to play.

A pair of free throws by Rose trimmed the lead to 94-93, and his dunk off a Magic turnover gave Chicago the lead back again, 95-94, with 2 minutes left.

Chicago led 97-96 when Rose lost the ball out of bounds, turning it over to Orlando with 49 seconds remaining. The Magic turned it back over to the Bulls during a loose-ball scramble following a missed shot, and Taj Gibson was fouled with 14.2 seconds left. He hit 1 of 2 at the line, but Chicago was able to chase down the rebound.

The ball found its way into Rose’s hands, and he hit both free-throw attempts to make it 100-96. Richardson finally got a 3 to go in with 2.7 seconds left, but Carlos Boozer hit two more free throws to push the lead back to 102-99 with 2 seconds to go and set up Nelson’s final attempt.

The Magic hit 12 3-pointers to keep them in the game, but shot just 43 percent overall and gave up 40 points in the paint. The 60 percent that Chicago shot for the game tied a season high for a Magic opponent.

But the Bulls also had an uncharacteristic 21 turnovers — including five by Rose — which tied a previous season high set in January against Boston.

“It is hard to believe you’re even in the game,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. “Their 21 turnovers were they only thing that kept us in the game. … We didn’t defend them well enough to win. They were breaking us down every time.”

Shortcomings aside, with two games to play, Anderson said Sunday’s effort did give them confidence about what they can do when they are moving the ball well and playing together.

“I think we just know how good a team we are,” Anderson said. “I think when we come out and play the entire game like we did tonight, I think we can play against anybody. It gives us confidence because we played great. This is kind of the effort that we’ve been looking for.”

Boozer said their goals of their final two games is clear.

“Winning, getting our tools sharp,” Boozer said. “Heading into the playoffs, playing our best basketball.”

Jameer Nelson and the Orlando Magic played well but lost a close one to Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls. (Gary W. Green/Orlando Sentinel)

The Orlando Magic lost to the Chicago Bulls on Sunday afternoon, but they played with good energy, moved the ball on offense and came milliseconds away from taking the Eastern Conference’s top team to overtime.

The Magic forced the Bulls into 21 turnovers, keeping the close despite Chicago shooting 60 percent from the field. Ryan Anderson broke out for 28 points and 10 rebounds, and Jameer Nelson posted 17 points and 11 assists.

Playing without superstar and team captain Dwight Howard, it wasn’t a bad showing.

And that has to be a vote of confidence to the Magic as they’re lined up to take on the Bulls in the second round of the playoffs, right?

Stan Van Gundy, Ryan Anderson and Jameer Nelson discuss in the videos after the jump.

Ryan Anderson said it felt good to play so well while undermanned against the Bulls.

Jameer Nelson is trying not to look forward to the Bulls in the playoffs, but there were a lot of good things to take from Sunday’s game.

Stan Van Gundy thought the Magic did a good job defending Derrick Rose, even though he scored 39 points.

Zach McCann can be reached at zmccann@orlandosentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ZachMcCann.