"Pacers center Rasho Nesterovic acknowledged Dwight Howard's big game but cut off questions about how unstoppable the Orlando Magic could be if their star plays this way every game.

T.J. Ford didn't want to hear about the Pacers' tough schedule or run of games on consecutive nights in November.

In the locker room after Saturday's 110-96 loss to the Magic, the Pacers brushed aside any topic tinged with the sound of an excuse.

"It's not just Dwight Howard," Nesterovic said. "It's been a couple nights in a row. We just have to figure out the way to overcome this. It's as simple as that. You can talk about all the this and that, but you have to stick together as a team and start winning."

The Pacers have lost five of their past six to fall to 6-10.

"We've just got to get better at winning, period," Ford said. "I don't think it has anything to do with the (schedule)."

Go ahead, foul himPacers coach Jim O'Brien is an advocate of the hack-a-Shaq approach when a dominant post player struggles from the foul line. The Pacers employed the strategy often used on Shaquille O'Neal, but Howard responded by going 10-for-17.

Howard entered the game shooting 61 percent from the line on the road but only 54 percent at home. He missed his first three against the Pacers.

"It's not as easy as it looks," O'Brien said before the game. "When he gets the ball with two feet in the paint and he's in the lower defensive box, we're going foul him. We're going to try not to give him dunks, but he's a little bit like Shaq was in that when you grab his arm, he can take you and the ball to the rim.''"