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Sunday, Nov. 08, 2009

Orlando Magic (5-1) at Oklahoma City Thunder (2-3), 7 p.m.

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Orlando shoots for its third consecutive win Sunday as the Magic invade Oklahoma City to take on an improved Thunder team.

Most recently for the Magic, Dwight Howard poured in 22 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, and blocked two shots to become Orlando's all-time leader in blocks, as the Magic handled the Detroit Pistons, 110-103, at Amway Arena.

Howard surpassed Shaquille O'Neal to become the franchise leader in blocks. O'Neal had 824 blocked shots during his four seasons in Orlando.

Matt Barnes had 18 points and nine rebounds for the Magic, who have won five of their first six games to begin the season. Jameer Nelson added 18 points and eight assists.

J.J. Redick ended with 16 points, while Brandon Bass chipped in with 13 points and six boards off the bench for the victors.

Despite the win Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy wasn't all that happy.

"I thought we had too many minutes when we were just trying to hang on and win a regular-season game," Van Gundy said.

Nonetheless, the Magic are off to an impressive start despite playing without a pair of key contributors. All-Star forward Rashard Lewis is suspended for the first 10 games after testing positive for an elevated testosterone level and swingman Vince Carter has only played in three games due to a balky left ankle. Carter may return tonight.

The Thunder, meanwhile, lost their third straight game to Houston on Friday but continue to show marked improvement. Carl Landry and Trevor Ariza hit big shots and ended with 21 points each in that one, as the Rockets logged a 105-94 victory against Oklahoma City.

Russell Westbrook piled up 33 points, one shy of his career high, doled out seven assists and grabbed five rebounds for Oklahoma City, which is 2-3 on the young season.

Kevin Durant posted 27 points and nine boards to finish as the only other Thunder player in double figures.

Orlando has won seven straight games over the Oklahoma City franchise.

"I thought overall we could have played better on transition defense. They just played much tougher than we did," Thunder head coach Scott Brooks said after the loss.

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