Orlando Magic 101, New Jersey Nets 84

Orlando took a big lead out of the first quarter and were never really threatened in a 101-84 win over New Jersey at Amway Arena on Sunday.

The Magic had a 32-18 lead after 12 minutes and the Nets fought back but could not muster enough to overtake the lead without star Vince Carter. They got as close as seven in the fourth quarter, but timely shooting from Orlando kept the game from getting interesting.

It was honestly a mundane middle of the season game. I listened to the second half and it did not seem like Orlando was really threatened even with New Jersey playing pretty hard. The Magic did enough to win comfortably.

When they got in trouble they threw it in to Dwight Howard, who had another big game with 30 points and 16 boards. He scored at will and had his way on the boards despite pestering from Robin Lopez, who also played well with 19 points and 12 rebounds.

Mickael Pietrus and Rashard Lewis were consistent and hit threes when they needed them. But even with the comfortable win, something feels off about this team right now.

The Magic are 5-4 since coming back from a 4-0 junket against the Western leaders -- and Sacramento -- and have not played with the same intensity. The upcoming All Star break might be on their minds at this point (only one game left until the trip to Phoenix) but the team needs to keep its focus.

Losing Jameer Nelson has hurt this team's intensity. Devin Harris had a nice game with 28 points and 12 assists, proving why he was selected to the All Star team. Recently (re-)acquired Tyronn Lue got about two minutes of playing time scoring two points. Clearly he just arrived and is not ready to run the team.

Anthony Johnson was OK -- again. He scored six points, grabbed eight board and had four assists. Hedo Turkoglu and Courtney Lee manned the point for the most part and the platoon seemed to work. It seems that is how things are going to work out even with Johnson and Lue in the fold. We will see how it works.

Overall, Orlando just got the job done tonight. It was not pretty by any stretch of the imagination but it counts the same as any other win. It is nice to know that Howard is starting to assert himself more offensively without Nelson and do what his team needs him to do without its All-Star point guard.

We will see if he keeps it up with Denver coming to town before the break.