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Magic look to rebound against Nets

Apr 11, 2009 - 4:10 AM By Brett Huston Stats Writer

Orlando Magic (58-21) at New Jersey Nets (32-47), 7:30 p.m.

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (AP) -- A surprising loss their last time out may have left the Orlando Magic out of contention for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, meaning they likely won't have home-court advantage should they win their first-round playoff series.

Coach Stan Van Gundy, though, isn't even sure his slumping team will even get there to find out.

The Magic will try to work their way out of their offensive doldrums Saturday night in East Rutherford as they look for their fifth straight win over the New Jersey Nets, who may be without All-Star guard Devin Harris.

Orlando (58-21) was percentage points ahead of Boston for the No. 2 seed in the East at the beginning of the month, but its quickly lost its grip on home-court advantage in a potential second-round meeting with the Celtics.

The Magic have lost three of six to drop two games behind Boston with three to play, and the conference's fourth-highest scoring team is now officially mired in an offensive slump. Orlando was averaging 102.2 points after a 116-87 victory over Cleveland on April 3, but has scored just 86.8 points over their last four.

"We're playing awful basketball," Van Gundy said. "There's not going to be anything magical happening at the start of the playoffs. I've never been a big flip the switch guy. But that's what our guys are trying to do now."

Van Gundy's club improved somewhat offensively Friday at home against the New York Knicks, but this time poor defense was the problem. The Magic gave up 100 points for the first time in nine games and fell 105-95 to the Knicks, their second home loss this month to an Eastern bottom-feeder.

"If we play the way we did these last two home games, there's not a team in the league we can win a series against," Van Gundy said.

Orlando is second in the league in 3-pointers attempted (26.4 per game) and fourth in percentage (38.2), but it's gone cold from beyond the arc lately. The Magic are hitting just 28.0 percent from long distance in their past four games, with Hedo Turkoglu (3-for-18) and Rashard Lewis (9-for-33) struggling the most.

Lewis, in particular, has been off, going 3-for-12 from 3-point range and averaging 9.5 points in his past two games.

Dwight Howard, meanwhile, hasn't scored more than 16 points in any of his past three games, and free-throw shooting has plagued the three-time All-Star. Howard is only a 59.5 percent shooter from the foul line this season, but he's down to 50.0 percent (34-of-68) in his past six games.

Perhaps a game against the Nets (32-47) will prompt Howard to show some improvement from the line. He's gone 24-of-32 (75.0 percent) from the stripe and averaged 28.0 points and 15.5 rebounds in leading the Magic to two victories over New Jersey this season, extending their winning streak in the series to four.

The Nets' last five games have come against Eastern playoff teams, and they've won both games at home and dropped all three on the road. Their latest setback came Friday night in Detroit, when Harris scored just one point in 20 minutes before leaving with a shoulder injury in the third quarter of the 100-93 loss.

His status for Saturday's game is uncertain.

Harris missed five games last month with the same injury. He's averaged 13.1 points on 37.8 percent shooting in eight games since returning, down from 22.6 points and 44.3 percent shooting before the injury.

Harris has averaged 26.5 points and 10.5 assists in two games against Orlando, including 28 on Feb. 8.