Orlando Magic 84, Boston Celtics 82

Dwight Howard set the tone for the game with a dominant first half. He was active on the boards, he was active offensively and he turned away any attempt at the basket.

He had reached his daily double by the end of the first quarter. The tone he set at the beginning lasted until the end.

The All-Star center blocked a Paul Pierce layup with five seconds left that would have given the Celtics the win. Instead his defense ended another come-from-behind effort from Boston. In the dying seconds, Howard's presence forced Pierce to send his game-winning 3-pointer long and give the Magic a crucial 84-82 win.

Howard's final line? 24 points, 21 rebounds, four blocked shots and countless others altered.

It bears repeating: he set the tone in this game early and decided he was going to dominate it.

Stan Van Gundy said this in his postgame press conference: Orlando probably played its best offensive game against an elite defense Wednesday. The Magic got to the rim at will, fed the ball to Howard for easy buckets and hit 3-pointers.

But 30 minutes of good basketball was nearly not enough. What impressed me tonight was the Magic's scrappiness and defensive tenacity. For most of the night, they frustrated the Celtics in every way.

Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are incredible players and for the most part the Magic did a great job defending them. Pierce caught fire at the end and single-handedly brought Boston back into the game and within one possession of the lead.

But Orlando defended incredibly well and made every shot difficult. Even with the Celtics breathing down their neck, the Magic calmly made the defensive stops they needed for the win.

It takes an incredible defensive effort to win a game when you do not score a field goal for the final 6:06 (not to mention Hedo Turkoglu missing a free throw that touched every part of the rim except the bottom of the net with five seconds left).

But then there is also the problem of Orlando not scoring a field goal for the final 6:06 of the game.

Boston is a great defensive team. The Celtics do a fantastic job taking away your first and second option and really making you dig down to gut out a win. That is exactly what they forced the Magic to do.

For the final moments of the game, it was frustrating to watch the Magic continually go away from Dwight Howard and opt for the screen and roll game that Boston was defending so well. Turkoglu finished with 13 points and 3-for-18 shooting. It does not get much worse than that.

Howard took 18 shots and hit 11 of them. But he was a non-factor offensively in the final moments. I know he struggles from the free throw line, but the offense needs to run through him at the end of games. He will score or find open shooters. If he is not going to get the ball, the Magic (at least for tonight) needed to have Rashard Lewis with the ball.

Lewis finished with 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting. He did a fantastic job defending in the post and posting up some small players on switches. Lewis has really developed well, but he still defers. This should have been his time to shine.

But my main point is -- and has been -- that if Howard is truly and MVP candidate, he needs to get the ball in clutch moments and the Magic must trust him in all situations. Orlando lost its 15-point lead when the team stopped going to Howard consistently.