LOS ANGELES -- Dwight Howard answered the question with a weary laugh, presumably because all of the questions were starting to sound the same.

The obvious conclusion, in response, is that this long series for Howard gets even more tiresome if he keeps getting asked about the Los Angeles Lakers' mobile big men and fast-changing coverages ... and how much harder they've made his life than Cleveland's bigs and schemes did.

Playoff schedule
FINALS Los Angeles 2, Orlando 0 Game 3: Tuesday, 9 ET, ABC

Isn't that right, Dwight?

"The Cleveland series," Howard finally said late Sunday, "is over with.

"It's a different ballgame."

Sure is. Two games into the NBA Finals, Howard has avoided further trouble with technical fouls and ended his dunk drought at last after going six quarters without one. Yet he has returned to central Florida as an openly exasperated man-child, still waiting to taste the modest joy of a 20-point night after rumbling for what we all thought was a life-changing 40 points in a Game 6 closeout of the Cavs.

"I was frustrated tonight and in the first game," Howard admitted after a 101-96 overtime defeat in Game 2 that stuffed his Orlando Magic into a 2-0 series hole that only three teams in Finals history have ever overturned.

"But being the leader on my team, my teammates cannot see me frustrated. I've got to play through all the different situations and learn from them."

Too late.

Even before he publicly shared those sentiments, Howard's misery was obvious to everyone in Orlando's locker room ... and L.A.'s. Holding Howard to a combined 29 points in two games with a variety of defensive looks that have (A) clearly kept Howard off-balance and (B) denied him the putback dunks that get him going is a big reason why the Lakers have taken a lead that, let's be real, has an iron-clad feel as the series switches coasts.

Asked if he thinks his team has discouraged Howard, even foul-plagued Lakers center Andrew Bynum was unable to hold back a "Yeah."

"But it's tough," Bynum said sympathetically, "when we're sending two and three people at him every time."

Howard's Game 2 line actually looks rather thorough: 17 points, 16 boards, four blocks, four steals and four assists. But he didn't even touch the ball on Orlando's final eight possessions of the extra period, spanning more than three minutes, which helped make sure that the Lakers didn't waste the gift of Courtney Lee -- 14 years to the day after the fatal free throws Nick Anderson clanked in the 1995 Finals against Houston -- missing a way-harder-than-it-looked layup on an alley-oop pass at the regulation buzzer that could have made this a 1-1 series.

"I don't know if he's frustrated, but I know he's mad," said Magic teammate Hedo Turkoglu. "He doesn't have a lot of space right now to be dominant."

It's both, actually. He's flummoxed and angry that the "crazy things" L.A.'s bigs can do, as Dwight described them, are working so well in Howard's first visit to the Finals, restricting Howard to a mere six baskets so far. Force Howard to rely on his down-low moves and free throws and you see the results.

Just to be clear: Howard is certainly not blameless here. Life would be undoubtedly easier if he had at least one trusty go-to move down low, as you've been hearing for ages, or if he could step off the block with a decent face-up jumper that he simply has to develop. Howard is also still a shaky passer out of the swarms, as seen in Game 2 when he had seven of Orlando's fate-sealing 20 turnovers. At 23, then, Howard has lots to polish if he wants to keep coming back to the Finals.

Yet he has no chance to be "40-Point Dwight" with everything else going on, starting with the serious struggles of Orlando's vaunted shooters. Those double- and triple-teams Bynum mentioned? The Lakers sent far more of them Howard's way in Game 2 compared to Game 1 because the Magic shot the ball so poorly for their entire L.A. stay.

The Magic rained in 3-pointers throughout the Cleveland series, forcing the 66-win Cavs to single-cover Howard far more than they wanted to. In this Game 2, Orlando's guards shot 6-for-26 and 1-for-12 on 3s, which is why Stan Van Gundy felt he had to bench both Rafer Alston and Jameer Nelson in the fourth quarter. Only Turkoglu and the scorching Rashard Lewis shooting a combined 9-for-18 from deep put Lee in a position to convert what would have been the lob of a lifetime.

Van Gundy knew coming in that the length and mobility possessed by Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom would enable L.A. to defend Dwight like Cleveland never could with its main frontcourt tag team of Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao. Even the surprises -- like the slender Gasol's numerous successful one-on-one stands against Howard in Game 2, or L.A. chipping away at Howard's resolve by beating him to spots, funneling him toward the baseline and matching him stride for stride in the open court -- haven't hurt Orlando as much as its painful Finals baptism from the perimeter.

The Magic simply aren't going to be able to withstand the clanking we've seen from them in this first step onto the game's biggest stage unless their shooting picks up in a hurry. Why would L.A. call off its Howard siege if the brick-fest continues?

"I don't think it's much trouble to get our guards shots," Van Gundy said, sounding plenty exasperated himself. "They're not guarding them. They're only guarding three guys, so it's not very hard to get those guys shots.

"I don't have any idea how to fix that," Van Gundy added, straying again (as he often does) into too-honest territory.

Said Turkoglu: "We have to make [Howard's] job easier."

You have to figure that the Magic will have an easier time doing so when they're back on their floor, whether it's by pushing the ball up the court faster or working the ball inside-out without so many turnovers. That likely explains why not even young Bynum could be duped into saying the combination of a 25-point blowout in Game 1 followed by the Lee tease has crushed Orlando's belief.

Bynum only half-hesitated, though, after the Lakers did what they failed to do in the previous rounds by winning both of the first two games at home.

"Next game is the game we can do some breaking the spirit," Bynum said.

Even Kobe Bryant -- as morose as we've ever seen him for the past week-plus as he inches toward his first championship without Shaquille O'Neal -- let it slip late Sunday that "we're close."

As for Howard, Monday did bring a little peace. It was a cross-country travel day for league officials and much of the world's basketball press, which spared him from further questioning about the good old days against the Cavs.

"It's a learning experience for me," Howard said. "I've just got to really do my homework and try to find ways to beat it."

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.

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