Howard hurts thumb,Detroit hurt Magic

Maybe Superman isn't quite so indestructible after all.
Dwight Howard, who donned the Superman shirt and flowing red cape at the dunk contest and leaped over the Toronto Raptors in a single bound in the first round of the playoffs, met his match Saturday night in the form of an old nemesis.
Howard's Kryptonite, in this case at least, proved to be a veteran, playoff-hardened Detroit Pistons team that kept sending bodies at him in waves. And when the night was complete and the Pistons owned a 91-72 thumping of the Orlando Magic, Howard was left clutching an injured thumb and wondering what had happened to his dreamy romp through the postseason.
Howard destroyed the Raptors in Round 1, crafting three 20-point, 20-rebound games in a series for the first time since the legendary Wilt Chamberlain did it in 1972. But as Howard quickly found out Saturday, the smallish, Charmin-soft Raptors aren't the Pistons.
Howard got heavy doses of Rasheed Wallace, Jason Maxiell and Antonio McDyess in Game 1, limiting him to an un-Superman-like 12 points and eight rebounds. And when that Pistons trio of defenders tired, veteran center Theo Ratliff entered in relief and pounded on Howard with two more fouls.
"I was expecting them to send four, five guys at me and I just have to play through it," said Howard, who needed X-rays on his left thumb after the game. (They were negative and he dubbed the injury "just a bruise.")
When Howard's production fell off dramatically Saturday, so did the Magic's. Their 72 points were far and away their fewest of the season. And when Howard stopped producing inside, a Magic team that made the second-most 3-pointers in NBA history (801) made just two of 15 shots from beyond the arc in Game 1.
Howard and the Magic tried to match the Pistons' physical play and trash-talking ways, but all it did was blow up in their faces. Howard once shoved Maxiell out of bounds while fighting for a rebound and the two were later whistled for a double foul following another scrum. Magic forward Hedo Turkoglu was called for a technical foul for yapping at Wallace and Rashard Lewis was whistled following a hard foul on Ratliff.
"You can't rough up the game with us," Detroit's Richard Hamilton said. "We've been doing this for years and that's the way we want to play. They tried to be physical, but we enjoyed it."
Wallace was more succinct: "You can't rattle us. We ain't no punks."
The strapping 6-foot-11, 268-pound Howard knows the physical play will continue as long as this series does. And he's well aware that for him to be able to flex his muscles against the Pistons, he and his teammates must keep their cool.
"Mentally, we have to keep our heads," he said. "Detroit is going to talk and push. We knew that coming in, but we got too frustrated."