{"id":429,"date":"2009-04-29T15:38:34","date_gmt":"2009-04-29T20:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/?p=429"},"modified":"2009-04-29T15:38:34","modified_gmt":"2009-04-29T20:38:34","slug":"sixers-fall-down-2-3-against-the-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/?p=429","title":{"rendered":"Sixers fall down 2-3 against the Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dwight Howard did so much damage to the Philadelphia 76ers he set off a coaching feud.<\/p>\n

Howard had 24 points and a career playoff-high 24 rebounds, a dominating performance that powered the Magic to a 91-78 victory over the Sixers on Tuesday night and gave Orlando a 3-2 series lead.<\/p>\n

Afterward, Philadelphia coach Tony DiLeo said Howard should have been called for 3 seconds in the lane several times and asked the league to look into an elbow from Howard on Samuel Dalembert.<\/p>\n

\u201cDwight Howard had a great game, and he\u2019s a great player, but he just lives in the 3-second lane on offense and defense,\u201d DiLeo said. \u201cI\u2019m just saying he\u2019s standing in the 3-second lane on offense and defense. He\u2019s a great player, and he doesn\u2019t need any advantages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy heard DiLeo\u2019s remarks, took the podium and defended his star center by taking a shot at DiLeo.
\n\u201cAm I supposed to come up here and talk about the game. Or am I supposed to come up here and lobby for the calls I want the next game?\u201d Van Gundy said. \u201cIs that what it\u2019s about now? We\u2019re supposed to lobby for the calls we want the next game? Let\u2019s just play the games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess that\u2019s the only reason Dwight\u2019s having success in this series. It has nothing to do with the fact that he\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard had help.<\/p>\n

Rashard Lewis snapped out of his playoff slump with a series-high 24 points, and Rafer Alston scored 14 for the Magic. But it was Howard\u2019s fourth career playoff game with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds that carried the Magic.<\/p>\n

Andre Iguodala scored 26 points and led a second-half charge that fizzled fast, and Andre Miller added 17 points for Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The Sixers face elimination in Game 6 in the best-of-seven series on Thursday in Philadelphia. A potential Game 7 would be Saturday in Orlando.<\/p>\n

Iguodala said it was hard to tell if Howard should have been whistled, but was sure of one thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just know when I\u2019m going to the basket, he\u2019s always there,\u201d Iguodala said.<\/p>\n

The Magic managed to keep home-court advantage without starting shooting guard Courtney Lee, who took an elbow to the head from Howard early in the first quarter and never returned. He was taken to the hospital for precautionary tests.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Howard, he wasn\u2019t missed.<\/p>\n

Howard led a third-quarter surge, muscling his way past the Sixers and elevating above everyone. He had two dunks, including an alley-oop from Hedo Turkoglu over Theo Ratliff, that highlighted a 12-5 run to put the Magic ahead 58-47 and put the blue-and-white crowd into a Thunderstick-pounding frenzy.<\/p>\n

But just like they\u2019ve done all series, the Sixers came back.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia cut the deficit to four points in only a few minutes on Iguodala\u2019s three-point play, converting a running layup on a foul by Turkoglu. The Magic went ahead 69-60 at the end of the period on a 3-pointer by Turkoglu, and they took a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter on a layup by Howard.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia 76ers forward And\u2026
\nAP – Apr 28, 11:43 pm EDT<\/p>\n

The Sixers are now in the same position as a year ago, when they took a 2-1 series lead on Detroit before losing in six games. Philadelphia hasn\u2019t won a playoff series since beating New Orleans in the first round in 2003.<\/p>\n

Plans changed fast for the Magic.<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s injury knocked him out of the game\u2014and possibly longer\u2014and threw off Orlando\u2019s rotation. Howard soared high and blocked a shot by Willie Green on the play in the first quarter. Howard\u2019s elbow came down on Lee, who was on the floor for a few minutes before going to the locker room for good with a towel to his head. His status for Game 6 was not immediately clear.<\/p>\n

What had DiLeo upset was another elbow from Howard.<\/p>\n

Howard and Dalembert got tangled up going for a rebound in the first quarter, and Howard was called for a technical foul on the play after he apparently hit Dalembert with his elbow.<\/p>\n

Howard said he doesn\u2019t feel he should face any suspensions for the hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery physical in the paint,\u201d Howard said. \u201cIt\u2019s been very physical in the series. All we can do is hope for the best. It\u2019s been a dogfight all series. It wasn\u2019t like I was out there trying to hurt anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Gundy also had a joking response to DiLeo\u2019s comments on the elbow allegation: \u201cWe\u2019re going to have the league look at Dwight\u2019s elbow on (Lee), too.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Please excuse me for being blunt, but what a JERK Van Gundy is. \u00a0He has always been this way since day one and somethings will never change. \u00a0Your Dwight Howard is taking cheap shots at our players. \u00a0Yes he is an amazing player, yes he is a beast, yes he will be a future possible HOF’er, but really it does not take a genius to see this cheap shots and cheap elbow against our boys. \u00a0But hey whatever it will come back to bite you in the end one way or another! \u00a0I’ve always learned you play FAIR in life and as long as you do that win or lose you will feel better about your performance. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dwight Howard did so much damage to the Philadelphia 76ers he set off a coaching feud. Howard had 24 points and a career playoff-high 24 rebounds, a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[454,457,453,456,452,62,455],"class_list":["post-429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philadelphia_76ers","tag-magic-win","tag-orlando-magic-win-game-5","tag-orlando-wins","tag-philadelphia-sixers-lose-game-5","tag-sixers-down","tag-sixers-lose","tag-sixers-lose-game-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}