http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/basketball/magic/orl-magic23a06mar23,0,3651832.story?coll=orl-magic Benched Howard throttles Knicks Brian Schmitz | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted March 23, 2006 Who'd have guessed that the player benched for disciplinary reasons was not Steve Francis? Who'd have guessed it was Dudley Do-Right, a.k.a. Dwight Howard? Howard didn't start after being late for the Orlando Magic's pregame shootaround. He angrily made up for it in leading the Magic to a 111-87 rout Wednesday night against the moribund New York Knicks. "I was a little upset," he said. Howard scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds, springing off the bench late in the first quarter to steer the Magic to a 14-2 run that KO'd the Knicks. "I can't blame anybody but myself. I'm a leader of the team. It's my fault," Howard said. "He [Coach Brian Hill] had to do that." The benching broke a streak of 149 consecutive starts for Howard. He needed just 12 more starts to break the Magic's all-time record of 160 held by Darrell Armstrong (1999-2001). Howard said he was stuck in rush-hour traffic. Club officials said he didn't get to the 4:30 p.m. shootaround at TD Waterhouse Centre until the workout was almost half over. Sounded more like the Adventures of Steve Francis. Steve-0 was making his return to face his former team since being traded to the Knicks last month, and he might as well have never left the bench. He was back on it for the final three periods after starting the game. Francis said it was Coach Larry Brown's decision and, "I can't do anything about it. I'm not in a position to demand minutes." He finished with more turnovers (3) than points (2) in about 11 minutes. At least Steve-0 didn't have to hear boos from the crowd for long. "People just want something to boo about," Francis said. "I did nothing wrong to the city at all." The Magic held an organ donation promotion before the game, and the team showed owner Rich DeVos that they didn't need to be donor recipients, specifically in need of hearts after Tuesday night's lame loss at Charlotte. Hill had threatened to bench several players, but had his normal starting five minus Howard. Darko Milicic started in Howard's place. The Magic had fallen behind the Bobcats by 20 points before halftime en route to setting a club record with their 16th consecutive road loss. They were possibly facing an historic (but unofficial record) of losing to three of the worst teams in succession: Atlanta, Charlotte and New York. The Triple Frown. But they looked revitalized in making amends at home, clubbing the disoriented Knicks with the 6-foot-11 Howard and 7-foot Milicic after New York tied it at 15. Milicic had two blocks and Howard scored 10 points in the 14-2 rally, including two vicious dunks, and the Magic led 29-17 after the first quarter. Howard's nice-guy temperament has been seen as a detriment, but he was fierce. "If it motivated him or whether he was upset with me, he can be upset with me every night if he plays like that," Hill said. Howard's second dunk early in the second quarter gave the Magic an 18-point lead and they increased it to 25 in the third. Orlando shot 51.2 percent and scored 35 points off 22 turnovers. Magic guard Keyon Dooling had nine of the 22 assists. Milicic finished with a season-high 13 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. He has a whopping 42 blocks in 16 games. He had received little playing time with the Detroit Pistons when Brown was in Motown. "This wasn't about Coach Brown," Milicic said. "I appreciate Coach Hill. The difference . . . is he didn't play me. I didn't ask for nothing but seven, eight minutes [a game]." Asked about Milicic, Brown said, "Darko did great." Howard was reminded that there are no free lunches in the NBA, but he was named the Subway Sub of the Game. "It's a first," Hill said. "He's gotten a lot of firsts in his career, but never been the Subway Sub of the Game. So it's always something new for Dwight." --

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