Back to Reality

After a close to fairy tale start to the season, the Jazz have been bought back to reality with their second 13 point loss in less than 72 hours. After Saturday’s loss to the Warriors it looked like the blame could be swept aside to a bad shooting night, but tonight the Magic simply outplayed the once 12-1 Jazz, and third year Dwight Howard was nothing short of unstoppable inside the paint.

Dwight Howard’s inside presence was too much for the Utah Jazz to handle.

Howard had 21 points and 16 rebounds to help the Orlando Magic beat the Jazz 88-75 Monday night in a matchup of the teams with the best records in each conference.

Howard recorded his sixth straight double-double and ninth this season. He is averaging 19.1 points and 15.8 rebounds in seven road games this season and Orlando won its first game of a six-game, 11-day Western Conference road trip.

“We couldn’t do anything with Howard,” Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. “He’s so big and long, we couldn’t keep him off the boards. He got huge rebounds, and he obviously made his free throws.”

Howard shot 13-of-16 from the foul line and Grant Hill, who missed Saturday’s game to attend a funeral for his grandmother, scored 16 points for Orlando (11-4). #