Sixers shut down Howard, Magic

AS THE SAYING goes, you can pick your poison. Why anyone would want to pick poison is up for debate, but the 76ers had to do just that last night against the Orlando Magic.

Would they do everything they could to contain superstar center Dwight Howard with constant double- and triple-teams and risk getting bombarded by the Magic's three-point snipers? Or would they play him straight up and take their chances with him?

Turns out they did both, tremendously well. The Sixers suffocated the Magic into 33.3 percent shooting (26-for-78), allowed just nine third-quarter points and swarmed to the basketball like seagulls to a beach picnic while posting a 74-69 win. They limited Howard to an ineffective 17 points on 6-for-17 shooting and 11 rebounds while improving to 15-6, including 11-2 at home.

While the Sixers have been padding their win total against less-than-stellar opponents, observers couldn't wait for the likes of the Magic (12-9) to start littering the schedule. It looked as if the players couldn't, either. There was a playoff-type atmosphere in the Wells Fargo Center and the team in white played as if it were the postseason. Thaddeus Young wound up on the floor numerous times hawking loose balls; Elton Brand pushed and shoved Howard into a night of relative mediocrity and Andre Iguodala turned in another outstanding all-around performance.

The perfectionist that is coach Doug Collins lamented at the fact the Magic scored 18 points in the final 2 minutes, 40 seconds of the game to turn an 18-point lead into a little bit of uneasiness. Still, the win wasn't in doubt at all in that fourth quarter.

"I thought our defense was fabulous except for the last 3 minutes of the game," Collins said. "I let our guys know at the end of the game that I was very, very happy with the win. I was not happy the way we finished the game. If we're going to be a legit team in the playoffs, then we can't let a team score 18 points in the last 3 minutes and not get one stop. So I let them know and I think you have to do that after a win and not after a loss."

Then he allowed: "Our defense for 45 minutes was fantastic."

In a season that lends itself to many excuses for just about every team (schedule, injuries), Orlando had a rock-solid one in that it was playing its sixth game in 8 days and second in 2 days.