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By Larry Fleisher
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer
NEW YORK (Ticker) -- The 3-pointers were not falling with theirusual accuracy but that did not prevent the Orlando Magic fromremaining unbeaten on the road.
Rashard Lewis scored 21 points as the Magic heated up down thestretch from the arc and concluded a four-game road trip with a112-102 victory over the New York Knicks Friday night at MadisonSquare Garden.
Dwight Howard collected 22 points and 20 rebounds for his fifthdouble-double and Jameer Nelson chipped in 24 and 10 assists forOrlando, which is 5-1 for the first time in five seasons.
Hedo Turkoglu also added 21 points for the Magic, who are 4-0away from home - the best road start in team history.
"It's just a sign of our maturity," said Howard, who recordedhis seventh career game with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds."Last year, I think our team would have folded in the pressuresituations, and so far early in the season, we keep ourcomposure as a team."
"We just had to continue to play the game even though shotsweren't falling for us early in the game. We knew it wouldeventually happen," Lewis added. "We just had to keep playingour game, going inside out and let Dwight get rolling. Once hestarted controlling the paint, he was drawing a lot of attentionand leaving us wide open."
Orlando came into the game shooting 42 percent from 3-pointrange and already had four games with at least 10 shots from thearc, including a 12-of-22 showing in the season opener againstMilwaukee and a 12-of-31 outing Wednesday in Toronto.
"They're a good team," Knicks guard Jamal Crawford said. "Theyhaven't lost a road game yet. It's difficult because positionsone through four on their team shoot threes."
The Magic did not duplicate those performances as they missed 17of their first 21 attempts. Despite that, they were able totake the lead late in the third quarter as Lewis hit consecutive3-pointers and converted three foul shots after being fouled byRenaldo Balkman with 41.4 seconds left.
"I think when I hit that three, we started going up by fourpoints and then we went up by six, seven points," Lewis said."As the momentum started shifting a little bit, we startedfeeling good on the defensive end and just all we had to do wasget stops and we knew we could go on the offensive end and get abasket whether it was inside or out."
Orlando took a 77-73 lead into the fourth and never surrenderedits lead. The Magic went up 83-76 with 10:08 remaining whenTurkoglu hit his first 3-pointer of the night and then tookanother seven-point lead just over three minutes later when thesharpshooter struck from the arc.
Following Turkoglu's 3-pointer, Howard made it a nine-point gamewith a dunk and Turkoglu put Orlando up by double digits with atransition layup at the 5:49 mark. Just 19 seconds later, Lewishit another 3-pointer for a 95-81 lead.
"We are good shooters and, if you miss 10, you shoot the 11thand you know it's going to go in," said Turkoglu, who scored 12points in the fourth. "That's the good thing about this team.We got guys who can knock down shots."
"Their guys hit a lot of big shots in the fourth and throughoutthe whole game," Knicks forward Zach Randolph said. "They're atough team in the East. Anytime they shoot like that from theperimeter, they're hard to beat."
While Orlando waited to get going from the arc, it stayed in thegame by missing only seven field-goal attempts inside the3-point line. The Magic quickly rallied from an earlyseven-point deficit, trailed by one at halftime and neverallowed New York to build more than a five-point edge.
The Magic connected on 47 percent (40-of-85) from the floorwhile finishing 9-of-29 from the arc.
"We just played our game," Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said."I didn't see hesitation on guys. They kept shooting the sameshots. We could have been headed for a 5-for-29 night andcriticism in the paper tomorrow that we settle and everythingelse, but we played our game and our guys played withconfidence."
The Knicks were trying to go two games over .500 for the firsttime in nearly three years. They had not been two games oversince January 1, 2005 when Lenny Wilkens was coaching the team.
Zach Randolph led the Knicks with 23 points and 13 rebounds andEddy Curry added 19 but just three boards. It was not nearlyenough as New York got very little out of its starting backcourtof Jamal Crawford and Stephon Marbury, who combined for 27points - most of it coming in garbage time.
The Knicks, who were coming off a 37-point showing in the fourthquarter of Tuesday's 119-112 win over Denver, finished with 20turnovers and shot 44 percent (35-of-79) while going 25-of-33from the foul line.
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer
NEW YORK (Ticker) -- The 3-pointers were not falling with theirusual accuracy but that did not prevent the Orlando Magic fromremaining unbeaten on the road.
Rashard Lewis scored 21 points as the Magic heated up down thestretch from the arc and concluded a four-game road trip with a112-102 victory over the New York Knicks Friday night at MadisonSquare Garden.
Dwight Howard collected 22 points and 20 rebounds for his fifthdouble-double and Jameer Nelson chipped in 24 and 10 assists forOrlando, which is 5-1 for the first time in five seasons.
Hedo Turkoglu also added 21 points for the Magic, who are 4-0away from home - the best road start in team history.
"It's just a sign of our maturity," said Howard, who recordedhis seventh career game with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds."Last year, I think our team would have folded in the pressuresituations, and so far early in the season, we keep ourcomposure as a team."
"We just had to continue to play the game even though shotsweren't falling for us early in the game. We knew it wouldeventually happen," Lewis added. "We just had to keep playingour game, going inside out and let Dwight get rolling. Once hestarted controlling the paint, he was drawing a lot of attentionand leaving us wide open."
Orlando came into the game shooting 42 percent from 3-pointrange and already had four games with at least 10 shots from thearc, including a 12-of-22 showing in the season opener againstMilwaukee and a 12-of-31 outing Wednesday in Toronto.
"They're a good team," Knicks guard Jamal Crawford said. "Theyhaven't lost a road game yet. It's difficult because positionsone through four on their team shoot threes."
The Magic did not duplicate those performances as they missed 17of their first 21 attempts. Despite that, they were able totake the lead late in the third quarter as Lewis hit consecutive3-pointers and converted three foul shots after being fouled byRenaldo Balkman with 41.4 seconds left.
"I think when I hit that three, we started going up by fourpoints and then we went up by six, seven points," Lewis said."As the momentum started shifting a little bit, we startedfeeling good on the defensive end and just all we had to do wasget stops and we knew we could go on the offensive end and get abasket whether it was inside or out."
Orlando took a 77-73 lead into the fourth and never surrenderedits lead. The Magic went up 83-76 with 10:08 remaining whenTurkoglu hit his first 3-pointer of the night and then tookanother seven-point lead just over three minutes later when thesharpshooter struck from the arc.
Following Turkoglu's 3-pointer, Howard made it a nine-point gamewith a dunk and Turkoglu put Orlando up by double digits with atransition layup at the 5:49 mark. Just 19 seconds later, Lewishit another 3-pointer for a 95-81 lead.
"We are good shooters and, if you miss 10, you shoot the 11thand you know it's going to go in," said Turkoglu, who scored 12points in the fourth. "That's the good thing about this team.We got guys who can knock down shots."
"Their guys hit a lot of big shots in the fourth and throughoutthe whole game," Knicks forward Zach Randolph said. "They're atough team in the East. Anytime they shoot like that from theperimeter, they're hard to beat."
While Orlando waited to get going from the arc, it stayed in thegame by missing only seven field-goal attempts inside the3-point line. The Magic quickly rallied from an earlyseven-point deficit, trailed by one at halftime and neverallowed New York to build more than a five-point edge.
The Magic connected on 47 percent (40-of-85) from the floorwhile finishing 9-of-29 from the arc.
"We just played our game," Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said."I didn't see hesitation on guys. They kept shooting the sameshots. We could have been headed for a 5-for-29 night andcriticism in the paper tomorrow that we settle and everythingelse, but we played our game and our guys played withconfidence."
The Knicks were trying to go two games over .500 for the firsttime in nearly three years. They had not been two games oversince January 1, 2005 when Lenny Wilkens was coaching the team.
Zach Randolph led the Knicks with 23 points and 13 rebounds andEddy Curry added 19 but just three boards. It was not nearlyenough as New York got very little out of its starting backcourtof Jamal Crawford and Stephon Marbury, who combined for 27points - most of it coming in garbage time.
The Knicks, who were coming off a 37-point showing in the fourthquarter of Tuesday's 119-112 win over Denver, finished with 20turnovers and shot 44 percent (35-of-79) while going 25-of-33from the foul line.
