DWIGHT FASTEST TO 5,000 REBOUNDS IN HISTORY IN MAGIC WIN

Orlando franchise center Dwight Howard made NBA history Monday night when he became the youngest player ever to grab 5,000 rebounds in a career in the Magic’s 101-95 defeat of the Miami Heat.
Dwight’s 5,000th rebound was a thing of beauty as he swooped inside of Miami’s Jamaal Magloire, elevated and snatched a rebound away from the reserve Heat center with 2:55 left in the third quarter. By the end of Monday’s game, Dwight had 5,006 career rebounds.
Dwight hit the 5,000-board milestone at 23 years, 112 days. He eclipsed the previous record of 25 years, 128 days set by the immortal Wilt Chamberlain. Dave Cowens (25, 153), Walt Bellamy (25, 197), Moses Malone (25, 265) and Kevin Garnett (25, 296) were also among the youngest to 5,000 rebounds in NBA history.
The feat is nothing new to Dwight, who was already the youngest in league history to 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 and 4,000 rebounds. Clearly, the Magic’s all-star center is on a path to greatness and at this rate will go down someday as one of the game’s best centers ever.
``Thank God, first, to be able to play without any major injuries in my career,’’ Dwight said. ``So it’s an honor for me.’’
Dwight dominated all phases of Monday’s game, scoring 22 points, grabbing 18 rebounds and delivering a key blocked shot as the Magic overcame Dwyane Wade’s 42 points.
With Dwight patrolling the paint, the Orlando-Miami series has become mostly one-sided. The Magic have won 12 of the past 13 games against the Heat, losi ng only this January in Miami. Of course, Dwight has been a major part of the reason for Orlando’s domination of its rivals to the South. He’s had 12 straight double-doubles against the Heat.
But on this night Dwight was more worried about the Boston Celtics than the Miami Heat. The Magic hold a slim lead over the Celtics in the race for the elusive No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Magic have an impressive six-game winning streak after stopping Miami’s six-game home winning streak.
``We have to come out every night and grind it out. We want to try and win the rest of the games for the season,’’ Dwight said. ``We have a hard task in front of us. Miami had been playing great at home so to come in here and win it feels great.’’
On a night when Dwight made rebounding history and battered Jermaine O’Neal and Magloire with a bevy of nice moves in the paint, it was a stout defensive stop that was the highlight of the night for Dwight. And it showed once again why he should be the runaway winner of the Defensive Player of the Year.
Tied at 87-all with 3:47 to play, Miami point guard Mario Chalmers drove down the right side of the lane and put up a layup try. Silly, rookie. Dwight stuffed the shot with two hands, igniting a Magic fastbreak that led to Courtney Lee’s go-ahead layup. It was the play that set the Magic on their way to their 55th victory.
For the game, Dwight made eight of 11 shots and six of nine free throws. He had a spin-lob dunk from Hedo Turkoglu, but his two prettiest moves of the night came in the fourth quarter. On one possession, Dwight drove to the middle of the lane, faked left and went back right for a soft layup off the glass.
And with 50 seconds to play and the Magic clinging to a three-point lead, Dwight corralled a lob pass from Turk and finished over O’Neal in traffic to ice the victory.