By John Hollinger
ESPN.com
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ATLANTA -- It looks like at least one of the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series will be interesting. And it will be that way largely because of a player who had a mere three points and five rebounds Wednesday night.

Jason Collins might not have had much of a stat line, but his defensive work against Dwight Howard was the key to Atlanta's 85-82 win Wednesday and the key to Atlanta's 3-1 series win over Orlando on the season. It's a stark turnaround from the 4-0 demolition job Atlanta suffered in the second round of the playoffs last year, as the changes to both rosters in that time have made the Hawks much more capable of checking the Magic attack.

"They're better than us right now," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "That's the bottom line."

Actually, they're not, but in the playoffs, that doesn't necessarily matter. What does matter is the individual matchup, and this one appears to level the playing field between two teams that, on paper, are fairly far apart.

Collins started all four meetings this season, and the Hawks held Orlando to an average of 82.5 points in those games. The key was not just that he limited Howard's points and periodically got him out of the game entirely with his penchant for drawing charging fouls, but that his single coverage took away Orlando's 3-point game. Orlando made only 19 of 84 3-point attempts in the four meetings; that's obviously a lower rate of accuracy than the Magic's norm, but perhaps more notably a lower frequency of attempts.

Normally, Collins' glaring deficiencies on offense make it too expensive to leave him on the court for his defense, but normally, the Hawks aren't playing the game's most dominant big man. On this night, Collins swung the game to the Hawks' advantage early by drawing two quick fouls on Howard, one on the offensive boards and the other with one of his patented flops in the low post. That sent Howard to the bench just four minutes into the game, and he struggled with fouls all night.

"Jason set the tone early in the game," teammate Al Horford said. "He was really the difference."

"That's the best defense on [Howard] on all year," Van Gundy said. "[Collins] did a great job. [Howard] missed a couple of good shots against Horford, but against Collins he didn't even get many good shots. I thought he did a great job on him.

"He's big, he's physical, he doesn't give him many angles to the basket, he doesn't give him anything easy, and Dwight had trouble just getting good, on-balance shots."

Collins did one other thing as well that had Howard and the Magic upset -- when Howard got a clear look, Collins fouled him. HARD. A neck-tie by Collins in the second quarter had Howard particularly vexed, especially in the wake of the near-scandalous officiating at the end of Monday's loss to the Knicks. Amazingly, Howard has not had an opponent called for a flagrant foul the entire season.

"It is what it is," Van Gundy said. "I'm not going to worry about that stuff anymore; it's Game 75."

What Van Gundy does need to worry about, however, is that the Hawks appear to match up better against his team than they do against almost anyone else. While Atlanta's defense has been Swiss cheese for most opponents -- the Hawks are only 15th in defensive efficiency -- the ability to use Collins to help neutralize Orlando's best player seems to give them a leg up on the Magic.

All this might come as shocking news to those who saw Orlando brutalize the Hawks in four lopsided games a year ago, but a lot has changed for both teams since then. Collins, who sat at the end of the bench a year ago, got himself in much better shape. Mike Bibby, torched by Jameer Nelson last spring, was exchanged for the defensively solid Kirk Hinrich. And Josh Smith (26 points) improved his shaky jumper juuuuuuust enough to provide a plausible answer at small forward, enabling the Hawks to use the "big" lineup with Collins at center and Horford and Smith at the forwards.

None of this means the Hawks will prevail when these two teams renew acquaintances in two weeks. (Although neither team has technically clinched its position in the standings, a Hawks-Magic matchup is virtually assured). Orlando might shoot 3s more accurately, might figure out how to get Howard easier touches against Collins and, barring that, might still shut down the Hawks' sputtering offense enough to prevail anyway.

But unlike a year ago, we're looking at a genuinely competitive series. For that, you can thank the guy with three points and five rebounds.

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