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Hawks can't master Magic
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The Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. — Hedo Turkoglu needed one rebound in the fourth quarter against the Atlanta Hawks for the second triple-double of his career. He didn’t think he was going to get it.

"Not when you’ve got to battle Dwight Howard to get it," Turkoglu said. "I kept telling Dwight I only needed one, but he’s the No. 1 rebounder in the league and it’s hard to get one off him."

Howard had 26 points and 16 rebounds in the Magic’s 123-112 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night. Turkoglu did get that rebound with just under three minutes to go, giving him 23 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds as the Magic won for the fourth time in five games.

"Getting another triple-double is a big deal for me," said Turkoglu, who recorded his first just over a month ago against Dallas. "I think I’ve always had the talent to do it, I’m just getting more of an opportunity to show that this season."

Turkoglu and his teammates showed a lot of offense against the Hawks. The Magic shot 54 percent from the field, hitting 15 of 28 3-pointers.

Orlando turned the ball over only nine times, including twice in the first half when they tied a team record by scoring 73 points.

"They shot the hell out of the ball all night," Hawks guard Mike Bibby said. "If Dwight didn’t put it in, somebody else was knocking it down from the outside. They made some tough shots."

Rashard Lewis had 22 points for the Magic, who had six players in double figures. Reserve Keith Bogans added 19, Jameer Nelson contributed 13 and Carlos Arroyo had 11.

"We’re pretty good when we take care of the ball and move it around like that," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "We did a good job of penetrating and kicking it out to our shooters and everything we put up went in, which was a good thing because Atlanta shot pretty well, too."

Atlanta shot 51 percent and was 11-of-17 (65 percent) on 3-pointers, but the Hawks trailed by 21 at halftime and never got the deficit under 10 in the second half. Joe Johnson led the way with 27 points, Bibby had 23, and Josh Smith and Salim Stoudamire 16 apiece for Atlanta.

"If you can’t stop anybody at any point in the game, you’re not going to win," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said.

"We’ve got to regroup and get back to defending the ball because teams that do that, win."

Orlando shot 61 percent from the field in the first half, including 9-of-16 on 3-point attempts. Turkoglu hit a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to give Orlando a 74-53 lead.

Bibby hit his first six shots and scored 15 points to lead a brief Hawks rally in the third period.

He fed Smith for a fast-break dunk that cut the Magic lead to 95-85 with 2:07 left in the quarter, but that was as close as the Hawks could get.

Notes: Atlanta had won four of the five previous games against the Magic. Magic F Brian Cook, who was 13-for-13 from the free throw line this season, missed both attempts from the line. Bibby, who was 7-for-27 from the field in the previous two games, hit nine of 13 shots. He was 5-of-6 from 3-point territory. The Magic lead the NBA with 611 3-pointers.

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