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Turkoglu, Magic rout listless Hornets

Dec 25, 2008 - 9:15 PM ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) -- Hedo Turkoglu scored 20 points and Rashard Lewis added 18 as the Orlando Magic cruised to an 88-68 victory over the New Orleans Hornets on Thursday.

Jameer Nelson added 14 for the Magic, who shot 46 percent from 3-point range (13-of-28) en route to their sixth straight win.

Dwight Howard added 12 points and 15 rebounds for Orlando, which led by double figures the entire way.

The Magic hit eight of their 3-pointers in the first half when they built a huge lead, then shot just 23 percent in the second half.

That left head coach Stan Van Gundy with something to gripe about.

"Our first half was our best offensive half of the year. The second half was easily our worst," Van Gundy said.

David West had 13 points for New Orleans, which had won 11 of its last 14 games.

New Orleans star point guard Chris Paul had 12 points and four assists, but did not record a steal - ending his NBA record streak at 108 games.

"Half the time when I got a steal I didn't even know it," Paul said. "It was going to end at some point, so why not Christmas?"

It was clear from the outset that only one team came to play.

The Magic scored the first eight points of the game and went on a 20-2 run over a four-minute span in the second quarter to grab a commanding 61-31 lead at the break.

"When we play good teams like that, we have to come out quick and take them out of their rhythm," Nelson said.

"We have to understand that against some of the these (teams) you can come out and mess around a little bit, but against the Lakers, Orlando and the team we play tomorrow night (Houston) you can't come out that way," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "That's the bottom line."

One of the better 3-point shooting teams in the NBA, New Orleans did not hit a shot from the arc until James Posey connected with 3:32 left in the third.

"You don't want to give them the championship already, but they played well tonight," Paul said. "They got us."

The Hornets shot just 25 percent from 3-point range (4-of-16) and 33 percent (28-of-84) for the game.

Nelson and Paul each won their respective conference's Player of the Week honors last week, and Nelson played a huge role on a Magic team that defensively shut down Paul and the rest of the Hornets.

"Our defense was tremendous," Nelson said. "It's big. When we have our defense clicking and are playing great on both sides of the ball, it sure makes things a lot easier."

"You're going to have these days every one in a while," Scott said. "We have to rebound and get ready for Houston tomorrow."