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Magic, Spurs eye more solid footing in their playoff races

Mar 25, 2008 - 1:39 PM San Antonio (47-23) at Orlando (46-26) 7:00 pm EDT

ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) - With the third seed all but locked up in the Eastern Conference, the Orlando Magic have the luxury of merely testing themselves down the stretch. The San Antonio Spurs should be so lucky.

The Magic eye their 11th win in their last 13 home games when they host the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.

Orlando holds a 5 1/2-game lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers (40-31), its closest competitor for the No. 3 slot behind the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons in the East, with 10 games to play. Even more in their favor is that after they finish with the Spurs, the Magic play only three teams with winning records the rest of the way.

Despite Dwight Howard's league-leading 62nd double-double, Orlando fell to the Atlanta Hawks, 98-90, on Saturday.

In his last game against the Spurs on November 21, Howard had 34 points and 16 rebounds but his effort was not enough to overcome Tony Parker's 32 points in a 128-110 San Antonio win.

After taking time to recover from bone spurs in his left ankle, Parker has been one of the better offensive options for San Antonio lately, averaging over 21 points in his last seven contests.

The Spurs won their third straight game, 88-81, on Sunday over the Dallas Mavericks to remain one game behind New Orleans (47-21) and the Los Angeles Lakers (48-22) in the Southwest Division and Western Conference standings, respectively.