Howard-Darko Block Party

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">No wonder the Boston Celtics said they were seeing things. And it wasn't the green beer on St. Patrick's Day.

For a night anyway, the Orlando Magic's vision had come to life.
Magic fans were seeing the future -- or at least getting a glimpse of it during Orlando's 84-77 victory Friday night against the Celtics at TD Waterhouse Centre.

When the Magic acquired 7-foot Darko Milicic, they planned to pair him with 6-11 Dwight Howard. The hope was that they didn't look good just in a hotel lobby.

The Howard-Milicic front line framed the game, combining for 28 points, 19 rebounds and 10 blocks as the Magic posted their fourth win in the past five games.

"I think everybody's getting a good look at the future with this team," guard Keyon Dooling said.

Howard had 18 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks and a mind-boggling dunk in 42 minutes. Milicic added 10 points, six boards and four blocks in just under 20 minutes as a reserve.

The duo caused the Celtics to keep looking over their shoulders in this ragged game.

"I think we were seeing shadows every time we came into the paint," Celtics forward Wally Szczerbiak said.

The Magic led just 72-71 in the final period after forward Raef LaFrentz's 3-point shot. But Dooling drove for two consecutive baskets, and Hedo Turkoglu made two free throws for a 78-71 lead with 3:30 left.

The Celtics couldn't get any closer than five.

Dooling and Turkoglu combined to score 16 of the Magic's 25 fourth-quarter points, matching the Celtics' entire total.

Turkoglu helped hold Celtics star Paul Pierce to just 5-of-18 shooting and 19 points.

Jameer Nelson led the Magic with 19 and Turkoglu added 18.

The Magic blocked 11 shots for the second consecutive game, and displayed some textbook defense. They held the Celts to 32 percent shooting and scored 23 points off 20 turnovers. The Celts had four shots blocked in the fourth quarter and missed 20-of-23 shots (13 percent) in the period.

Howard jolted the crowd to its feet only seconds before halftime with an acrobatic highlight dunk.

He received an alley-oop pass from Nelson, but it was the degree of difficulty that made the slam so spectacular.

The pass was far behind him after getting deflected, and Howard had to reach back for it while in the air. He slammed it through in one motion, producing a roar from the 15,702 fans who rose to their feet.

"If it wasn't Dwight on the receiving end, it probably would have been a turnover," Magic Coach Brian Hill said. "That ball was about four feet behind him. That was a very, very special play by a heck of an athlete."

Said Celtics Coach Doc Rivers, who finished 1-3 against his former team this season, "Howard is just a beast. I thought his rebounding killed us as opposed to his blocks."

Milicic has blocked 14 shots in his past three games, Howard nine in his past two.

"Certainly, that's what we had in mind when we made the trade for Darko was that these two guys would complement each other . . . But we're a long way from that," Hill said.

"This isn't Ben [Wallace] and Rasheed [Wallace] yet."</div>

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<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Bobcats:</div><div class="quote_post">Wow, Darko is playing pretty good right now. Darko-Howard vs. Villanueva-Bosh. If these guys stay in the Eastern conference after their rookie contracts, we are going to witness a great battle over the next 5-10 years.</div>

Yeah it's going to be interesting over the next couple of seasons how some of these bottom teams develop.

The Hawks have shown some flashes this season.
The duo of Dwight and Darko is looking very promising.
The duo of Bosh and CV is getting better.
The Bobcats need to get healthy, and if they find a reliable scorer in the draft they'll start racking up wins.