FanHouse DwightHoward

ORLANDO -- If Dwight Howard wants to keep that Superman moniker -- if he wants to deliver on his promise to bring an NBA title to Orlando -- he better turn his game up another notch real soon.

Playing Shaquille O'Neal -- who is well past his prime and 14 years older -- to an uninspired standstill like he did Wednesday night won't get his team anywhere close to the Finals again.

He knows it. And his coach certainly does, too. The Defensive Player of the Year and defending rebounding champion has been rather pedestrian lately.

It's hard not to like Shaquille O'Neal, the most compelling NBA player of his era and arguably the best center in history. His love of the spotlight, his often-outrageous, sometimes-egotistical, always-entertaining behavior made him a must-see attraction since he entered the league with Orlando a long, long time ago.

It's why there will be some sadness in seeing him get destroyed on his former home court Wednesday night by Dwight Howard.

Sometimes, you hear rumors about NBA players doing crazy things with women. That's just part of the game, though. Do you know what I am saying? But still, when I heard that Dwight Howard allegedly (bold = important, obvs) whipped out his, ahem, member at porn star Mary Carey while in the bathroom of N'Sync member Chris Kirkpatrick's house, well, let's just say I was shocked.

But that's the story she was preaching on the radio earlier this week.

ORLANDO -- Coming to the defense of his All-Star center, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy didn't criticize the officials Wednesday night -- he didn't want another fine -- but he was clearly critical of the way Dwight Howard is being officiated this season.

Howard, the biggest, strongest, best center in the NBA, is being unfairly penalized, according to Van Gundy.

"He gets penalized for being so strong. We give guys an advantage in this league for being quick, but we penalize them for being strong like Dwight,'' Van Gundy said after Howard finished with 11 fouls in the last two games combined. "If you hit a perimeter guy on a drive the way they are allowed to hit Dwight all the time around the basket, it would be a flagrant foul.''

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

It's not every day that we get to see a player hit for 40 points or more in an NBA game. So on Sunday, when we had three different players meet or surpass the mark, it's definitely something worth discussing.

Especially when two of them did it in the same game.

Vince Carter was about to deliver one of those "don't-you-wish-I-was-still-here" games Friday night in New Jersey, when he fell to the floor clutching his left ankle midway in the second quarter.

Carter, traded by the Nets to the Orlando Magic this summer, had 16 points in his first 15 minutes before he left with a sprained ankle. X-rays were negative and he told reporters that "hopefully,'' he could play Sunday in Toronto.

His mother, who was there, described it to the Orlando Sentinel as a "mild sprain.'' It happened on a drive to the basket when he stepped awkwardly on the foot of New Jersey guard Devin Harris.

The NBA season is a mere two days old, but the dunk I'm about to show you that Carmelo Anthony threw down over Paul Millsap on Wednesday is in fact, the dunk of the year.

'Melo said after the game, "Once I got the steal, I knew it was just me and him,'' Anthony said. "I wasn't going to lay the ball up. I was going to try to dunk it. If he'd have blocked it, he'd have blocked it. It went the opposite way."

But don't take my word for it: after watching the video, you can read what Dwight Howard and Quentin Richardson had to say about it, via updates they made to their respective Twitter pages after seeing the sensational highlight.

ORLANDO -- Stephanie Fisher thought it was just another internet scam when she signed up to follow Dwight Howard on Twitter (@DwightHoward) two months ago, and up popped a message saying she was a lucky prize winner.

Yeah, right, she thought.

The message said she was Howard's one millionth follower, which meant she had won a trip for two to Orlando to meet the Magic star and watch the opening game Wednesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers.

"I didn't believe it at all,'' she said after the game. "So I just ignored it at first.''

ORLANDO -- When the Orlando Magic signed out-of-work Jason Williams this summer to a one-year, minimum wage contract, they made it sound like he was coming merely to be an insurance policy, giving them a past-his-prime, third point guard in case the bottom fell out on the other two.

He's obviously going to be more, a lot more for a real good team.

Williams, 33, is no longer the flashy, wrap-around-passing entertainer he was earlier in his career in Sacramento, but he looks refreshed and ready to play at a high level once again, adding another strong weapon to the defending Eastern Conference champs.

A year off certainly did him well.