With Howard out, Gortat materializes for Magic in Game 6

No, Gortat is not the name of a character played by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.

But Marcin Gortat, the 6-11 Polish anonymity who filled in last night against the 76ers for the Orlando Magic's suspended superstar center, Dwight Howard, proved he was hardly the inept Eastern European visitor to these shores who Cohen portrayed in the 2006 film, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

It wasn't Gortat - or shooting guard J.J. Redick, the one-trick pony who filled in for the injured Courtney Lee - who primarily did in the Sixers in a season-ending, 114-89 loss to the Magic in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference first-round series at the Wachovia Center. The big guns for Orlando were forward Rashard Lewis, who went off for a game-high 29 points, and point guard Rafer Alston, who added 21 points and 10 assists. And, lest we forget, Alston was a midseason acquisition to replace injured All-Star Jameer Nelson, the former Saint Joseph's standout.

But for the 16,691 spectators who filled the arena in the hope that the absence of Howard and Lee would open a window of opportunity for the Sixers to force a climactic Game 7 tomorrow in Orlando, Gortat and Redick more than held up their end of the deal. Gortat played Sixers center Samuel Dalembert to a statistical standstill, scoring 11 points and grabbing a game-high 15 rebounds to Dalembert's eight points, 13 boards and one blocked shot.

Redick, the former Duke All-America whose singular positive as an NBA player is his ability to shoot spot-up three-pointers, dropped in five of seven treys en route to 15 points.

Makes you wonder how much worse it might have been had Howard not sat out the game for throwing an above-the-shoulder elbow at Dalembert in Game 5, or Lee hadn't had sinus surgery after being smacked in the face by an inadvertent elbow from Howard a bit later in the same contest.

The hold-the-fort work done by Gortat and Redick validated the pregame opinion of Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy that his bench guys were more than capable of rising to the occasion.

But it was Gortat of whom Van Gundy seemingly was most proud. A dead ringer for middleweight boxing champion Kelly Pavlik, Gortat came to America to stay as one of those projects who might develop into something of value, or might not.