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ORLANDO -- The Orlando Magic ended 12 years of postseason misery Monday night with a 102-92 defeat of the Toronto Raptors for their first playoff series victory since 1996.
The Magic won the series 4-1, capturing three victories at Amway Arena and one in Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

The Magic got huge big-game performances from franchise center Dwight Howard (21 points and 21 rebounds) and star forward Rashard Lewis (18 points and 13 rebounds), but it was huge 3-pointers from point guard Jameer Nelson (19 points) and Keith Bogans (11 points) that paved the way to the victory down the stretch.

The Magic led just 84-82 with 6 minutes remaining, but they then pulled away in similar fashion to Saturday’s Game 4 with a strong closing kick. Orlando used a clutch 13-2 spurt, nine of the points coming on 3-pointers from Bogans and Nelson, over the next four minutes to pull comfortably into the lead.

A sellout crowd of 17,519 inside Amway Arena exploded with noise and raw emotion with each fourth-quarter basket, propelling the Magic to one of the franchise’s biggest victories in years.

The Magic hadn’t won a playoff series since 1996 when they beat the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Orlando had lost its past seven straight series, stretching from the defeat against the Chicago Bulls in the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals to last spring’s first-round sweep against the Detroit Pistons.

Orlando will face the survivor from the Detroit-Philadelphia series, which is tied at 2-all. That second-round series would begin either this weekend or next week depending on how long the Pistons and Sixers play. The third-seeded Magic would have the homecourt advantage against the seventh-seeded 76ers, but would start on the road against the second-seeded Pistons. Orlando was 3-1 against Philadelphia this season, but split four games against Detroit.

Howard had his third game of the series with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds. He led the NBA with eight 20-20 games during the regular season.

Toronto star Chris Bosh scored just 16 points for the Raptors.

Orlando grabbed the lead and control of the game in the third period with some gritty defense on Bosh and a barrage of 3-pointers. Bogans gave the Magic a 65-62 lead on a 3 from the corner and when Nelson drilled a 3-pointer minutes later it jump-started a 9-2 quarter-closing rally.

Bosh, who had 39 points and 15 rebounds in Saturday’s Game 4 loss, seemed to come unglued late in the third period. He missed 10 of his first 14 shots and he was whistled for a technical foul when he argued after being hit by a Howard shoulder to the chest.
Unlike in Saturday’s second half when they pulled away from the Raptors with efficient execution, the Magic’s offense was mostly a disjointed mess in the first half. Orlando jumped to an eight-point lead in the first three minutes of the game, but crumbled a bit and often looked as if it was pressing under the weight of the circumstances.

The Magic turned the ball over nine times, missed 10 of 13 3-pointers and trailed 50-49 at the half. Howard had 10 points and 12 rebounds by halftime, but he got just six shot attempts with most of them coming off his five offensive rebounds.

A Toronto team that made only two 3-pointers in Game 4 hit four in Monday’s first quarter alone, helping it grab a 26-22 lead by the end of the first period.

Contact Denton at jd41898@aol.com.