Some Magic Updates/Info

We are 1-3 without Keyon this season. The one win was Saturday night against the Knicks. Even in that win, Jamal Crawford hit us for 23 points. Dooling missed the game in when Larry Hughes was still with the Cavs, and torched us for 40 points. Andre Miller, another player Dooling would have guarded, whooped up Nelson for 26 against the Sixers on Wednesday night. Dooling is making his defensive presence felt and increasing his Free Agent value, so we need to re-sign him ASAP.

To Stan Van Gundy, the playoffs start now even though we have roughly 7 weeks left. Locking up a top seed and home-court advantage is the goal now; losing to 'weak' teams won't get us there.

"Staying in the third seed likely would allow the Magic to open the playoffs against either New Jersey, Washington or Philadelphia, and make them heavy favorites." Dropping to the fourth seed would give the Magic nightmares with facing teams like Toronto or Cleveland in the first round. Those teams have the potential to clobber this young and inexperienced team. Now is the time to really focus with the much easier schedule than the beginning of the season. On the flip side, we can't just be content with the third spot. "We're the third-best team in the East, so we need to be trying to catch up to Boston and Detroit. Then, in the playoffs, we know we'll have to go through those teams to get to the ultimate goal of winning a championship. So now has to be about working to improve."

Of the 21 remaining games, 13 are at home. The Magic play just five teams (Toronto, Golden State, Cleveland, San Antonio and New Orleans) the rest of the way that have winning records. And no road trip is longer than two games or crosses the Mississippi River the rest of the way.

Van Gundy wants the team to make sure not to relax while going down the stretch. Just like we witnessed with the terrible loss to the Sixers, "the Magic have yet to fully embrace the so-called dog days of the NBA's marathon schedule as a time to surge rather than coast." We have no room to coast. We haven't won anything yet.

Tony Battie was ruled out for this season when reading numerous reports. Despite that, the team is still watching his rehab closely and he is till hoping for a return for the playoffs. Van Gundy said he would definitely include Battie in the playoff roster, if his shoulder is healed enough to play. Van Gundy, though, doesn't anticipate that happening. "Could Tony give us a few more minutes at center? Sure, but our first concern is his health. We’d never risk him for the short term."

The Magic have lost 91 player games this season due to illness or injury, but 61 of them have been by Battie. Of the other 30 missed games, 17 have come from the three point guards. Said Van Gundy: "Other than Tony (Battie), we’ve been pretty lucky with injuries. But the injuries we’ve had have all come at one position with Jameer, Keyon and Carlos."

The Sonics officially have the coolest site in the NBA and ironically one of the worst teams. Check it out.