Los Angeles  - The Orlando Magic's hopes of closing out the Philadelphia 76ers in Game Six on Thursday, and moving into the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, took a giant hit on Wednesday.

The NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson said that Magic All-Star centre Dwight Howard was handed a one-game league suspension for elbowing Sixers big man Samuel Dalembert in the head.

The costly incident occurred with 9:15 remaining in the first quarter of Orlando's 91-78 home-court victory on Tuesday night.

Howard finished with 24 points and a career-playoff 24 rebounds as the Magic took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

After the game, Sixers' coach Tony DiLeo and general manager Ed Stefanski immediately approached league officials, lobbying for Howard to be punished.

Stefanski reiterated the point in an interview with WIP Radio in Philadelphia Wednesday morning, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

"The rule is obvious," Stefanski said. "I contacted the league immediately after the play. You got to think about this. Dwight Howard is seven foot.

"Now if it was a 6-foot-3, 6-foot-4 guy that he elbowed, you could maybe say something was inadvertent. But this is a seven-footer in Samuel, and to basically go to his head with his elbow. To me there's no difference than a punch.

"The rule states clearly if there's an elbow thrown to the head and there's contact then the player should be ejected," he explained.

"The officials said that they didn't see contact and that's why they gave him a technical foul instead of an ejection."

Howard defended his rugged inside play.

"It's very physical in the paint, it's been physical the whole series," he said. "It's been a dog fight the whole series.

"It's not like I'm out there trying to hurt anybody," he added. "I think everybody knows how I play basketball. I'm just going out and try to win the series." (dpa)