Dwight Howard made his much-ballyhooed return to Staples Center Wednesday night against the Lakers, and promptly spun around and dunked on Chris Kaman. Of course, the spin move and dunk followed a chorus of boos as soon as Howard had received the ball on the low block, so Howard let the crowd know how he felt about them on his way back up the floor. The refs wasted no time in whistling Dwight for a technical, which appeared to be more a formality than anything else, as they likely decided to make their presence known early on as well.

In a related story, the free-falling — and suddenly Steve Blake-less — Lakers only suited up eight players against the red-hot Rockets, and promptly got their collective asses handed to them, 134-108. Dwight racked up a tidy 20 points and 13 rebounds in 28 minutes, while James Harden torched the Lakers with 29 points, 6 rebounds and 11 assists.

[frank den]