Dwight Howard‘s apparently not worried about his wife Amber Howard anymore … because he’s dropped the restraining order against her as they work to permanently separate.

We spoke with Howard’s attorney — Gillian B. Fierer — who explained to us the former NBA star dropped the protective order as the first step in the process to an amicable resolution of their split.

Fierer says this is quite common in divorce proceedings where someone has filed for a protective order … because it pushes for an order of divorce to be filed — which helps the split along.

Amber denied the claims … telling Us Weekly, “Dwight is pulling any string of retaliation to cover up another one of his many wrongdoings. The protective order is completely false. Because I did not lie to the police when Dwight asked me to the day his daughter was removed by CPS, Dwight is reaching low to retaliate in an attempt to silence me.”

We broke the story … Dwight filed to divorce his wife last month after she claimed his daughter had been taken by Child Protective Services. It was the second time Howard filed for divorce from Amber.

The split spiraled into messiness in the weeks since … with Howard denying Amber’s claims he’s used drugs and later retiring from basketball to focus on his family.

Body cam footage showed one of the times police were called to Howard’s Georgia mansion to referee a dispute between Dwight and Amber.