Howard has 28 & 15 as Magic win 8th straight, 109-95 over Wizards; Washington’s skid hits 7

Magic win 8th straight 109-95; Wizards skid hits 7

WASHINGTON — Dwight Howard had 28 points and 15 rebounds, and the streaking Orlando Magic wore down the back-to-back-to-back Washington Wizards 109-95 Saturday night.

Howard became a one-man show early in the second half, and he and Jameer Nelson made the alley-oop look routine as the Magic won their eighth straight game, the franchise’s longest winning streak since April 2006.

Andray Blatche was Washington’s one-man spotlight, scoring 32 points on 14-for-23 shooting as the Wizards lost their season-high seventh straight game. Washington wrapped up a stretch of three games in three nights with a road trip in the middle, a rare scheduling quirk caused when a game was postponed by a February blizzard.

Vince Carter and J.J. Redick scored 18 points apiece, and Brandon Bass added 16 points and nine rebounds for the Magic, who are 4½ games behind the Cleveland Cavaliers for best record in the Eastern Conference. Howard went 11 for 13 from the field and also had five assists.

Shaun Livingston had 18 points and eight assists off the bench for the Wizards, who aren’t getting any kind of break in the schedule. They’ll spend Sunday traveling, then play back-to-back games at Utah and Denver on Monday and Tuesday.

The Wizards sure didn’t start the game like a team needing rest from playing an AAU schedule. They ran up and down the court with Magic, with Blatche dunking at one end and Howard dunking at the other. A series of superb possessions with good ball movement gave the Wizards a 14-0 run and a 35-20 lead early in the second quarter.

Redick, Bass and Mickael Pietrus came off the bench to rally the Magic, with Redick scoring 10 points in a 22-6 run that gave Orlando the lead. The half ended appropriately enough: Blatche banked in a 20-foot jumper and held his palms up to the crowd as if to say, “Hey, I can do no wrong,” then Howard got another dunk with one second left to put Orlando ahead 61-55 at the break.

Then the Magic took over. Or, more to the point, Howard took over. He made a hook shot, slammed an alley-oop on a pass from Nelson, recorded a steal, blocked one of Blatche’s shots and hit a free throw — all during an 8-0 run during the first two minutes of the second half.

Another alley-oop from Nelson to Howard pushed the lead to 16 points. The Wizards cut it to nine late in the third quarter while Howard was on the bench, but Redick scored eight points in a 15-4 run to open the fourth quarter to put the game away.

Notes: Howard and Redick were the human barometers for the game. Redick’s plus-minus rating was plus-21 in just 24 minutes. Howard’s was plus-20 in 37 minutes. … Pietrus returned after missing one game with a strained neck muscle. … The Wizards beat the Magic in the teams’ two previous meetings this season, but the stars of those games — Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison — were shipped away when Washington cleaned house before the trade deadline. “It’s like playing a team for the first time this season,” Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said.