Point Taken: Why The Orlando Magic Are Finally The Best Team in The NBA

In a media interview last month, Orlando forward Rashard Lewis referred to the Magic as "that other team" whenever there is a conversation about the league's top teams.

The Celtics and Lakers are two of the league's flagship and most historic franchises. They're also last spring's NBA Finalists. The Cavs have LeBron James, the league's most dynamic player, and they were in the 2007 NBA Finals. Their playoff resume as of late is well-documented, as well.

But that's 2008 and 2007. We are talking 2009. And the Orlando Magic have done plenty—plenty—to prove that they are, indeed, the best team the Association has to offer.

Oh, it began far before Friday night's impressive 109-103 win at the Staples Center over the Lakers, the team who came into the night with the league's best mark. It began far before they hit a league record 23 three-pointers in a 139-107 humiliation of the hapless Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night.

It began far before Sunday's 105-98 win at San Antonio, another one of the league's top five teams.

And it began far before the Magic showed the division rival Atlanta Hawks just how many ways they can beat them—either 106-102 at Atlanta or 121-87 in Orlando—in keeping the Hawks more than just an arm's length away in the Southeast Division.

The Magic have been building to this point, slowly but surely, all year.

They have already shown that they are a better team than the Lakers, completing a season sweep of the defending Western Conference champions on Friday night. While the Lakers have solid shooters surrounding dominant interior players in Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, the Magic have better perimeter shooters surrounding the most unstoppable inside force in the entire NBA in Dwight Howard.

Howard leads the team with 20.3 points per game and leads the entire league with 14.0 boards and 3.2 blocks. He's probably the frontrunner for Defensive Player of the Year honors, and while the other elite teams have perimeter players as their cornerstone guys (LeBron in Cleveland, Kobe in L.A., Pierce in Boston), the Magic have the most gifted big man since Tim Duncan donning their light baby-blue jersey.

It all begins and ends with Howard in Orlando, but unlike other contenders like the Cavaliers and the Hornets, the Magic are not overly dependent on their superstar. That's because they've done a heck of a job surrounding him with exactly the type of team he would need.

While teams collapse inside on Howard, head coach Stan Van Gundy's group gives their big man the opportunity to pop it out to a plethora of shooters on the best perimeter team in the league. Orlando ranks second in three-point percentage, first in three-pointers per game, and first in total three-pointers made.

Rashard Lewis, the team's big 2007 free agent acquisition, is a sharpshooter who plays the power forward, averaging 19.0 points and 3.0 treys per game on 42 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

Hedo Turkoglu, who signed with the squad as a free agent in 2004, is showing that last year's breakout season—where he won the league's Most Improved Player honors—was no joke, putting up 16.9 points on 1.8 3-pointers per game.

And point guard Jameer Nelson, who was in the same draft as Howard in 2004, is showing the 18 teams that passed up on him (excluding the Magic at No. 1) that he can, indeed, play point guard and play it very well.

While Cleveland gushes over Mo Williams and Boston hypes Rajon Rondo, Nelson has quietly put together a spectacular all-around season. Amongst Williams, Rondo, and Nelson, it is Orlando's point guard who is the leader in points, three-point percentage, and overall field goal percentage.

His respectable 5.3 assists per game trail Rondo, but there is no question as to who the better all-around guard has been this season.

While the Cavs and Celtics hang their hat on defense, the Magic are right there defensively. Anchored by Howard, Van Gundy's team is fifth in points allowed, third in opponents' field goal percentage, fourth in opponents' three-point percentage, and fourth in blocks.

Thirteen years after the Shaq and Penny era was blown to smithereens, Central Florida has another Magic squad to be proud of. This time around, the once-in-a-generation big man with the million dollar smile and unmatched off-court charisma is going nowhere, as Howard is on the first year of a five-year extension he signed with the club in 2007.

And here's the scary part for the rest of the league: This is a young nucleus that will continue to get better and better down the road, with all of the core players either in their primes or a couple of years away from it.

But that's for down the road. This year is plenty enough: The Orlando Magic have arrived as the best team in the NBA.