Dwight Howard scored 46 points against the Hawks

Dwight Howard scored 46 points against the Hawks, but he didn't have much help. (Gary W. Green/Orlando Sentinel)The Orlando Magic kept going to Dwight Howard Saturday night, and it’s hard to blame them. He was unstoppable, showing the world his offensive improvement translates to the postseason by scoring a career-high 46 points on 16-of-23 shooting.

But for some pesky reason, the Magic don’t seem to play well when Howard goes off. They’re 3-4 when he scores at least 30 points in playoff games, and it’s no coincidence that most of those games featured teams who insisted on single-covering Howard, like the Hawks did during Saturday night’s 103-93 win over the Magic.

It’s not complicated why this happens. Howard continues to get his points, but the Magic’s offense doesn’t open up because the defenders are staying glued to the perimeter players. That’s why the Magic shot 27.3 percent from three-point range and everyone except Howard and Jameer Nelson combined to score just 20 points.

“We’ve got to try and find a way to get those other guys into the game a little bit more,” Stan Van Gundy said. “Clearly they’ve got to make the shots that they get, we can’t do anything about that, but we’ve got to try and get them into the game a little bit more. We’re not going to do it with two guys.”