The Orlando Magic didn't have their best player on the floor when they hosted the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night.
Dwight Howard suffered from back spasms and sat out a regular-season game for only the eighth time in his eight-year pro career.
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy has alleged that Howard was punched in his lower back by Dallas Mavericks center Brendan Haywood during Friday night's loss to the Mavericks.
Haywood said he did nothing wrong.
"Man, I don't know what's wrong with Stan," Haywood said Sunday, according to ESPNDallas.com. "Stan's going to say what Stan wants to say. We don't gotta play them no more. The game's over with.
"I think Dwight caught me with more shots than I caught him. He's the most physical player in the league. So it is what it is. Stan made his comment. I haven't got a call from anybody [in the league office], so I guess nobody's listening."
Van Gundy said Magic officials on Sunday sent video of the alleged punch to the league office for review, but Van Gundy didn't sound optimistic that anything would come from it.
"Their response time is 14 days," Van Gundy said.
"I guess they're swamped," he added, more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Glen Davis started in Howard's place at center.
Howard has played all 82 regular-season games in five of his seven complete seasons. In 2008-09, he missed three games because of a sore left knee. Last season, he sat out two games because of a stomach virus and two more because he was serving league-imposed suspensions for accumulating too many technical fouls.
"I don't care how good you are, if you're going to miss a lot of time and not be at work, you're not helping your team on those nights," Van Gundy said. "So his durability is probably as big an asset to him as anything else he does."
A team spokesman said Howard wasn't on the bench during Sunday's game because he was receiving treatment.
Anderson progresses
Ryan Anderson didn't like how the loss to the Mavericks ended — with him missing the potential game-tying basket from a few feet out as time expired.
But Van Gundy was pleased that Anderson showed some resilience. Anderson was whistled for a pair of questionable personal fouls against Dirk Nowitzki in the fourth quarter, but Anderson responded at the other end by scoring four points.
"I thought that Ryan competed extremely hard in that game — extremely hard," Van Gundy said. "I was very happy with what he did in that game. I thought he competed as hard over a full 48 minutes as he has since he's been here."
Anderson said the two late calls against him motivated him.
"That kind of fired me up," Anderson said. "It just became a really intense, physical game by the end. I was just into it."
Layups
• Davis' start was his second start this season.
• Nuggets forward Wilson Chandler did not play because a strained groin. Former UF star Corey Brewer started in Chandler's place.
• Entering Sunday, the Magic had beaten the Nuggets in 17 of the teams' previous 18 games played in Orlando.
• The Nuggets made 20 of their 35 first-half shot attempts (57.1 percent).
• Denver led by as many as 12 points in the first quarter.
jbrobbins@tribune.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog. Subscribe to our Orlando Magic newsletter at OrlandoSentinel.com/joinus.
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