Magic rout Raptors behind pair of ‘double/doubles’

Still playing in the shadow of Boston and Cleveland in the East, the Orlando Magic improved their NBA best road record to with a 113-90 rout of Toronto at the Air Canada Centre on Sunday.  Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson both posted “double/doubles” to pace the Magic.

Orlando never trailed in the game, leading 31-25 after the first quarter and using another big surge during a 34-18 third quarter to put the game away.  Howard earned his 29th “double/double” of the season with 29 points and 14 rebounds, while Nelson scored 18 points and contributed 10 assists.  Mickael Pietrus added 22 points off the bench, while starters Hedo Terkoglu, Rashard Lewis and Courtney Lee each scored in double digits for the Magic. 

Toronto was paced by 16 points from Jose Calderon, with Joey Graham scoring 14 off the bench and Andrea Bargnani adding 12 points and 8 rebounds.  Chris Bosh had an uncharacteristically quiet night, with 11 points and 9 boards and Magic coach Stan Van Gundy was pleased at his team’s ability to contain a frequent “thorn in the side”:

"The two players we have been almost totally unable to contain have been Dwayne Wade and Bosh. It's like those guys never have even an average night against us. They're always great. Obviously we haven't found the answer, I'm not even sure we know what the questions are."

"The bottom line is it was going to be [Bosh's] 2-point jump shots against Dwight down in the paint at point-blank range. That was a trade-off we were willing to make. We were lucky he wasn't making a lot of shots tonight because when he's on, it's going to be a tough game for us."

The win was the 200th of Van Gundy’s coaching career, giving him the opportunity for a witty quip about the obligatory “commemorative game ball” to display in his office:

"It means I get another ball in my office, one of those lettered balls. That's good, because the more balls you put in there, it really looks like you're accomplishing something. You can fool a lot of people with that."

Orlando will return home to Amway Arena for a game against Dallas on Monday night and against the LA Clippers on Wednesday.  They’ll try to build on their road success again this Friday as they travel to Indianapolis to take on the Indiana Pacers.  Toronto has a murderous scheduling stretch this week, beginning with a trip to Cleveland to play the best home team in the NBA on Tuesday night.  They’ll return home on Wednesday to take on the Los Angeles Lakers and travel to New Orleans for a game against the Hornets on Friday.