"When Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard stood at the free-throw line in the second quarter Thursday night, the Cavaliers' always clever scoreboard elves posted a photo of a University of Michigan player striking the Heisman pose.

It drew only a smattering of boos.

Perhaps the fans at Quicken Loans Arena didn't need a gimmick to remind them of the Howard they most recently love to hate.

It was Dwight Howard who dashed the Cavaliers' championship dreams last season in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. The then-23-year-old center dazzled with the best game of his four-year career with a 40-point, 14-rebound performance to send the Magic to the Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Howard returned to the Q on Thursday for the first time since the playoffs, but the much-anticipated blood-letting between Howard and the big man the Cavs brought in to stop him, 37-year-old, 15-time All-Star Shaquille O'Neal, failed to materialize. Thanks to O'Neal's foul trouble in the Cavs' 115-106 victory over the Magic, it didn't even qualify as a good bump and grind.

Howard played a quiet 31 minutes and finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds. O'Neal saw just 19 minutes of action and contributed 10 points and six rebounds. He was whistled for personal fouls Nos. 4 and 5 in a span of 2:06 early in the third quarter.

Neither were credited with the

biggest swat of the evening, that going to the Cavs' J.J. Hickson, who blocked a short Howard jumper with about nine minutes left.

O'Neal has made disparaging remarks in the past about Howard, and that contempt seemed to show in perhaps the best moment of their short-lived battle midway through the second quarter.

With 8:27 left, O'Neal slapped at Howard and drew an offensive foul, O'Neal's third. It appeared as if O'Neal was trying to goad Howard into something to get him out of the game."