Orlando Magic News & Notes: Deadline Day

AP Photo/John Raoux

The Orlando Magic defeated the Detroit Pistons 116-91 on Wednesday night. The game got very physical – Matt Barnes was issued a flagrant foul and Ben Gordon was ejected.

Dwight Howard had 33 points, 17 rebounds, and seven blocks.

The Magic led by 12 when Gordon was tossed with about five minutes remaining. But they had trouble shaking the Pistons, who had a red-hot Rip Hamilton (36 points) and had carved a 13-point deficit to four to begin the fourth period.

Howard scored consecutive six points — hitting four consecutive free throws on a night in which he made 11-of-13 — to allow the Magic to pull away in the final quarter.

Brian Schmitz has the story here.

It looks like Vince Carter is out of his slump.

He set the tone for his evening on Orlando’s first offensive possession of the game. He received a pass on the perimeter, pump-faked and then drove to the hoop for an emphatic dunk.

“He was aggressive attacking the basket,” Magic point guard Jameer Nelson said. “Me and V.C., we just have got to stay on the attack and not settle for jump shots all the time. We’re pretty much the primary playmakers on the team in terms of getting in the paint, finding people and creating for ourselves.”

Carter’s performance Wednesday contrasted starkly with his January, in which he averaged 8.7 points per game and shot 28.4 percent from the field.

Josh Robbins has the story here.

The big news of the day was the acquisition of Antawn Jamison by the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Magic reacted to the deal after the game and you can read their reactions here.

Rashard Lewis says that the trade doesn’t scare him.

Jamison has caused Lewis problems on occasion. So what does Lewis think about the trade?

“It doesn’t scare me,” Lewis said. “I’ve been on all star teams as well as him. I think it’s going to come down to who executes better on the defensive end. Most definitely a great player. … At the same time one guy doesn’t win ballgames. They do have another guy called LeBron James which is going to be our focus.”

Tania Ganguli has more on that story here.

I will be joining Ben Q. Rock of Orlando Pinstriped Post, Zach McCann of Orlando Magic Daily, and the Orlando Sentinel Magic staff (Josh Robbins, Brian Schmitz, Tania Ganguli and Matt Humphrey for a deadline chat hosted by the Orlando Sentinel at 3:30 pm EST. You can participate in the chat here.

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)