Magic get glimpse of life without Dwight, and it's not pretty

ORLANDO—Dwight Howard irritated a lot of people this season. So it’s a little painful to admit it that underneath the waffling and doublespeak, the guy had a point.

The Magic really are nothing without him.

Indiana beat the Orlando 97-74 Wednesday night, and you could almost hear the ghost of Dwight hovering above the Amway Center floor whispering, “I told you so.”

Not that Howard or his ghost would be so petty. Then again, whoever thought the NBA’s happiest superstar would be turn into the league’s premiere drama king?

Most of Howard’s free-agent twisting and turning was based on his contention that the Magic needed to surround him with better talent. It would have been asking a lot for that talent to shove that gripe back in Howard’s face.

But couldn’t the leftovers at least not lose by 23 points on their home floor?

Give Orlando credit for winning Game 1 in Indianapolis, though it’s apparent that was far more a case of the Pacers losing it. Orlando’s strategy was to get Indiana so overconfident its players would leave midway through the fourth quarter.

“We all we got!” the Magic kept saying.

They scored the final 11 points to steal the win. All that did was get the Pacers’ attention. Now they lead the series 2-1, though it might as well be 200-1.

“We were awful," coach Stan Van Gundy said afterwards. "Everybody was awful. There are team wins and team losses. This was a team loss.”

Orlando’s season is over, though you could say it really ended April 20 when Howard underwent surgery for a herniated disc. Or you could say it never really got going due to all the uncertainty Howard spawned.

Like a lot of Magic fans, he was missing Wednesday night. Howard is rehabbing in Los Angeles, where the surgery was performed. That at least spares Otis Smith the angst of watching his meal ticket standing around helplessly.

Instead, Smith spent Wednesday night in his usual chair. It’s a riser located in a walkway. It’s sort of out of the way, though not nearly far enough away to please Magic fans.

They looked on the court and saw Smith’s handiwork. Guys like Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu, who are five years past their prime. Ryan Anderson was a nice find, but he’s turned back into Ryan Anderson now that teams don’t have to worry about Howard.

Big Baby Davis has his moments, though they still interrupted by fits of immaturity. Jameer Nelson is about as average a point guard as you’ll ever want to cheer for.

When asked what the problems are, Anderson chose to focus on the next game.

“It’s a little bit of everything. There is no one answer. The great thing about it is we have another game.”

All the individual parts don’t add up to a greater whole, especially when their minds are farther away than Howard’s body. As much as Stan Van Gundy likes not having to deal with the Dwight Drama anymore, it must kill him to watch what’s going on.

The Heat could lose Dwyane Wade or LeBron James and still be title contenders. The Lakers would be dangerous without Kobe Bryant. The Bulls are still respectable without Derrick Rose. If Kevin Durant went down, the Thunder would always have Russell Westbrook.

Solid franchises can survive the loss of one player. The Magic lost Howard, and they’ve turned into the Washington Generals.

They are all they’ve got. And as Howard pointed out, that’s not nearly enough.