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Orlando Magic NBA Playoffs: The top 10 Orlando Magic playoff performances

By Philip Rossman-Reich

Jan 20, 2017; Orlando, FL, USA; Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins inducts Penny Hardaway into the Orlando Magic Hall of Fame during the first half against the Milwaukee Bucks at Amway Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 20, 2017; Orlando, FL, USA; Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins inducts Penny Hardaway into the Orlando Magic Hall of Fame during the first half against the Milwaukee Bucks at Amway Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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6. Dwight’s 20/20

2008 First Round Game 2 — 29 points, 20 rebounds, 12/17 FGs

The first trip to the Playoffs can be a blur. Typically a team or a player makes his first Playoff appearance as a lower seed against a heavy favorite. They get dominated, lick their wounds and learn exactly what Playoff intensity is.

The joy of the Playoffs every year is seeing young players come into their own as a player in subsequent Playoffs as they go from young team to contender.

The 2008 Playoffs was Dwight Howard’s coming out party. This was the moment when the NBA knew Howard was a coming storm to dominate the paint and change the game around the league. And he was bringing the Magic with him.

Howard put on a show throughout the first round of the Playoffs, dominating Chris Bosh and the Toronto Raptors in the series. He averaged 22.6 points and 18.2 rebounds per game in the five-game series, dominating every moment. Not to mention, pushing Orlando to its first series win since 1996, Shaquille O’Neal’s last year in Orlando.

The new era had begun.

No game was more impressive than his 29-point, 22-rebound effort in Game Two, a one-point win for the Magic. Toronto simply had no answer for Howard around the basket. He worked the paint, he dominated in every way.

Howard was a tour de force. And his Defensive Player of the Year win, his first of three straight, was truly just the beginning.