Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard didn't appear to pull many punches after the Game 5 loss here at the TD Banknorth Garden.

His comments were critical of the Magic's play, and coach Stan Van Gundy and his staff.

"I think you're supposed to play to win, not supposed to try to lose, that's not why you play the game," Howard said, probably bringing a smile to Herm Edward's face somewhere. "You play to win. When you're up big, when you're up 14 or whatever, you don't try to hold the ball or let the clock run out, you gotta go with what got you the lead. Then you have to be able to lock down on defense, and unfortunately, this game we didn't do that."

Van Gundy had made mention of the same critique in his post-game comments, that the team tried to slow things down and run down the clock after they were up big.

However, Howard had pointed a significant portion of the blame on the coaches.

"I will say it's tough to win when all season long you play inside out and you trust one of the people to that got you off to a good season," Howard said. "I think I'm capable of scoring the post so you know, I just don't think ten shots -- I don't want to say it's all about offense.

"You gotta dominant player, let him be dominant."

Howard went on to add to his comments, saying, "The coaches have to recognize what's working on the floor and stick to it. Even if you don't have your starters in. the guys you put the most trust in, you gotta have trust in everybody. When you're in the situation where, okay, guys got it going, you know everybody's moving the ball and energy is up, you have to stick with it. You have to stick with what works. When you take out certain guys and you know some guys have to get into the flow of the game, it's tough."