"The Orlando Magic can point to a fortunate 3-point heave by Jamal Crawford as the reason why they lost Game 3 of their playoff series to the Atlanta Hawks 88-84.

But as Crawford triumphantly hopped up and down the Philips Arena court, game-in-hand with 5.7 seconds remaining, the Magic only had themselves -- and not bad luck -- to blame.

Jason Richardson lost his cool late. Hedo Turkoglu lost his shooting stroke. For one half, the Magic lost their intensity on the defensive end of the court. And now the team trails the best-of-seven series two games to one.

"We just have to keep believing," said center Dwight Howard.

The Magic may confront an additional obstacle when Game 4 arrives Sunday. Richardson could be serving a league-imposed suspension for fighting with Atlanta's Zaza Pachulia late in Game 3's fourth quarter.

With Atlanta ahead 81-80 with 2:22 remaining, Pachulia fouled Howard hard as Howard shot the ball in the lane. As Howard landed, his right forearm careened into the left side of Pachulia's face just as Pachulia flung an arm at Howard.

Richardson raced into the picture, and as he and Pachulia jawed at each other, Pachulia delivered two or three head butts to Richardson's forehead. Richardson responded by delivering a slap to Pachulia's face.

Both Richardson and Pachulia were ejected for fighting, and Howard received a technical foul.

"Playoff basketball -- that's what I saw," Hawks coach Larry Drew said.

"It was intense the entire game. It got physical out there. Obviously, emotions are high. You got two teams fighting to win, and everybody's trying to gain an edge, particularly down the stretch. The one thing that we don't want to do in that situation is take a step back, and I'm sure they're feeling the exact same way."

Richardson left the arena without speaking to reporters.

"If you get head-butted three times, you're going to have some kind of reaction," Howard said. "When a guy hits you -- he head-butts you -- it's tough not to have a reaction. But, hopefully, they look at the whole thing. If he can't play [in Game 4], then the other guys have got to step up.""