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Wizards and Magic meet in central Florida

Feb 16, 2011 - 4:08 PM (Sports Network) - With their road losing streak behind them, the Washington Wizards look to ante up again as the visitor when they make a stop in central Florida tonight to battle the Orlando Magic at Amway Center.

Washington recorded its first road win of the season (1-25) Sunday at Cleveland, posting a 115-100 victory to end a 26-game slide as the guest dating back to last season. It was the Wizards' first win away from DC since a 106-96 decision in Boston on April 9, 2010. They haven't triumphed in back-to- back road games since beating Miami on Nov. 27 and Toronto on Dec. 1, 2009.

Nick Young continued his impressive season by scoring 31 points and rookie John Wall provided 9 points and 14 assists for the Wizards, who were closing in on Dallas' NBA-record 0-29 road start in 1992-93. Andray Blatche and Kirk Hinrich netted 17 points apiece in a winning cause. Washington head coach Flip Saunders seemed pleased with the effort afterwards.

"At least, now, the guys can watch ESPN again," Saunders said. "They didn't want to watch ESPN because you keep hearing about 0-24 and 0-25. Now, there's nothing for them. More important, not just winning, it's how we won. I thought that we played well from beginning to end."

The Wizards won for the second time in three tries, but for only the second time over their previous 11 contests. Wall's 18 double-doubles this season are the most by a Wizards rookie since Tom Gugliotta registered 37 double-doubles during the 1992-93 campaign. Young leads the team with 27 games of 20 or more points and is averaging a career-high and team-best 17.6 ppg this season.

Young is listed as probable for tonight with a bone bruise on his left knee.

Orlando proved its still one of the top teams in the league with an 89-75 victory over the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.

Dwight Howard was a force as usual, posting 31 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks for the Magic, winners in four of their last six games. Jason Richardson scored 12 points to help Orlando improve to 1-1 on a seven-game homestand. Ryan Anderson and Hedo Turkoglu notched nine points apiece.

"I thought we put a lot into that game," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "We played nine guys, I thought all nine of them gave an absolutely tremendous effort. I thought our individual defense was the best it's been all year."

Van Gundy's team held superstar Kobe Bryant to 17 points and outrebounded the Lakers, 48-34. The Magic will also host the Kings, Thunder, Bobcats and Knicks, and are a solid 20-8 at home this season. Howard has a double-double in 14 straight games and 44 on the season.

The Magic, who are 23-11 against teams from the East, have won three of the first four meetings with Washington this season. They haven't swept a season series since winning all four matchups during the 2008-09 season and are 13-3 in the past 16 encounters between the teams.

Washington has lost 14 of 18 visits to the Magic Kingdom.