Sonics have no answers for Howard's 39 Magic points

Rashard Lewis, the newly minted $118 million Orlando Magic forward, pondered the question for a moment before he replied.

How would you feel if you were still with the Sonics, he was asked?

"Nah, that's OK," he said before breaking into a smile while sitting on a stool in the corner of the visiting locker at KeyArena. "Look around this room. Look at these guys. This is a good situation for me. I'm happy. I'm winning games and I'm finally, I mean finally, playing with a big man.

"This is what I always wanted in Seattle. We had shooters, but we never had a big man. We could be doing this. We could have done this, but we never had a big man, and to win in this league you need a big man."

The Magic have Dwight Howard, a dynamic 6-foot-11 athletic center who bullied his way to a career-high 39 points in a 110-94 Orlando victory over the Sonics in front of 12,398 at KeyArena on Wednesday.

It can be argued that even with a full complement of healthy centers, the Sonics don't have an answer for someone like Howard, who has overtaken Miami's Shaquille O'Neal as the most dominant big man in the Eastern Conference.

So with centers Nick Collison (broken nose) and Robert Swift (sore right knee) sitting on the sideline and Kurt Thomas (sore right hamstring) and Johan Petro (lower back strain) playing with nagging injuries, the Sonics were helpless to stop Howard.

He dunked. He rebounded (16 boards). He blocked (five shots). He had an assist. He ran the court like a sprinter. And whenever the Sonics pulled close, Howard responded with dunk after rim-rattling dunk that must have felt like a flurry of punches to the midsection for the Sonics.

"I'm a pretty logical guy — the closer you can get to the basket, the more often the ball is going to go in," Sonics forward Wally Szczerbiak said. "They got a load. They got a beast in there. He's a helluva tough player to guard. They got a monster in there."

Nine of Howard's 12 baskets were dunks and the Sonics' only chance of slowing him down was to foul. When that happened, he made them pay for putting him on the line.

"Point-blank, he's the most dominant player in this game right now, I would say," Sonics forward Kevin Durant said. "He gets to the free-throw line. As a big man, you would think he would miss free throws, but he was 15 for 20."

Late in the third quarter, Howard had taken twice as many free throws as Seattle. In the end, his 15-for-20 effort at the line nearly matched the Sonics' 21-for-26 night.

Still, despite Howard's dominance in the middle, the Sonics' 1-2-2 zone momentarily confused the Magic, which was unable to get the ball inside to Howard.

While Orlando struggled to find points, Durant and Szczerbiak converted improbable baskets to reduce a 83-68 deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to one point.

Durant scored 10 of his team-high 22 points in the final quarter. Szczerbiak, who added 20 points, cut Orlando's lead to 93-92 on a pair of free throws.

After Orlando scored three free throws, Durant drove the lane where Howard stopped him cold with a blocked shot. Then on the other end, Keith Bogans made a three-pointer that gave Orlando a 99-92 lead with 3:57 left.

The Magic, which at 14-3 has the most victories in the NBA, drained three consecutive three-pointers to seal the game. Hedo Turkoglu (15 points) had one three and Bogans (14 points) had two.

"Good teams are going to adjust," Szczerbiak said. "They started to figure out something that worked. Zones are going to have a few holes if you don't match up and talk and scramble. They got open shots in the corner for threes and those are not hard shots for good shooters."

The Sonics fell to 2-14, which matches the 1967-68 inaugural team for the worst start in franchise history, and their losing streak is at six games.

"I feel for those guys over there," said Lewis, who was visited after the game by Sonics forward Damien Wilkins. "I got a lot of friends over there. I try to tell them it's a long season. Things can change, but they got a young team."

In his first Seattle homecoming, Lewis, who began his career here in 1998, finished with just nine points on 3-for-19 shooting. He also had 10 rebounds.

"I don't care," he said. "I really don't care about the points. We're in here laughing and having a good time. We've won 14 games. I'm happy. This is what I've always wanted."

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com