Without 40 percent of their starting lineup, the Magic dismissed the Sixers, winning the best-of-seven series, four games to two.
Afterward, Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy sat down, chuckling, then plugged his daughter in the student-council election at her high school - he had promised he would.
"The last thing I said to the guys leaving the locker room is 'Be great today,' " Van Gundy said. "One of the best wins I've ever been a part of."
Van Gundy said his team was appreciative of what Howard does, but was motivated to win without him.
"They're joking in there, 'Once we got rid of Dwight's 24 points and 24 rebounds, things really opened up,' " said Van Gundy, laughing.
Meanwhile, Sixers coach Tony DiLeo looked as if he had swallowed a golf ball. He said what happened was inexplicable.
"Well, that was extremely disappointing," DiLeo said, folding his stat sheet in half.
"After the season we've had, after the playoffs up until this point we had, to finish off a season with that game is disappointing" DiLeo said. "We're fighters and resilient, but this game was, for us, a total collapse."
It started bad, then got worse: The Sixers trailed by nine after the first quarter, 14 at halftime, and 15 after three.
It got so bad that with 2 minutes, 42 seconds remaining in the third quarter and the Sixers trailing by 85-65, many in the crowd of 16,691 drowned the team in boos.
"We were all over the place, and instead of trying to cover for each other, we were trying to cover for ourselves," said Andre Iguodala. "They showed they were a mentally tougher team."
Most in the crowd stuck with the team until 7:51 was left in the fourth, when the Sixers trailed by 22 points. During a time-out, a huge part of that crowd stood up and filed to the concourse.
