For anyone curious about the playoff picture, here it is, courtesy Tom Ziller of Fanhouse. Most likely, we'll face the Toronto Raptors in the first round. That's an unfavorable matchup, to say the least. I'd much rather play the Philadelphia 76ers, as we match-up better with them than we do the Raptors. Dwight Howard always has trouble guarding Chris Bosh, and the thought of having to stop him in a seven-game series frightens me.

I played a playoff edition of 20 Questions with Hardwood Paroxysm. You can check it out here.

And now, some diversions. In honor of our first fifty-win season since 1995/96, I thought I'd have some fun with the number 50...

• Two players in Magic history have scored exactly 50 points in a single game: Tracy McGrady in 2002 and Nick Anderson in 1993.
• The last player to wear no. 50 for the Magic was Mike Miller. His best game with the Magic came on Valentine's Day 2003, when he scored 33 points in a loss to the 76ers.
• The Magic got their 50th victory of the 1995/96 season with a 113-91 drubbing of Grant Hill and his Detroit Pistons. Horace Grant lead the way for us with 26 points, and Anthony Bowie had a 20/10/10 triple-double. Here's the recap from the Orlando Sentinel.
• The Magic's 50th win in franchise history was the first game of the 1991/92 season, a 106-96 decision over the New York Knicks. Again, here's the Sentinel's recap.

If you're curious to see what 3QC will look like this Friday, when it migrates to the new SBN 2.0 platform, check Golden State of Mind, which made the jump today. It's purdy.

Fifty is nifty. Here's Mike's recap. - BQR

For the first time since the 1995-'96 season, the Magic have achieved 50 victories in a season, thanks to a 104-84 victory over the Bulls.  The Magic led from start to finish and put the Bulls away in the fourth quarter while leading by as many as 24 points as they outscored Chicago 22-10 in the final period.  The Magic led 36-24 at the end of the first quarter as they shot 11 of 14 (78.6%), including 5 of 7 from 3 pt range.  Chicago cut the Magic lead to 53-48 at the half and trailed 82-74 after three quarters before the Magic put the game away in the final period.

Hedo Turkoglu was the overall star of the game for the Magic, as he scored 24 points with 8 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals.  Dwight Howard was a big factor down low again, scoring 13 first quarter points and finished with 19 points in just three quarters.  Even though he attempted just four field goals, Howard was fouled repeatedly trying to shoot down low and made a very respectable 13 of 17 free throws.

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	vs.
31-48		49-30
United Center
7:00 PM
Sun Sports
Probable starters:
Kirk Hinrich	PG	Jameer Nelson
Larry Hughes	SG	Maurice Evans
Luol Deng	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Tyrus Thomas	PF	Rashard Lewis
Joakim Noah	C	Dwight Howard
Season series:
31 Dec 2007: Magic 112, Bulls 110
15 Jan 2008: Magic 102, Bulls 88
9 Apr 2008: Magic 115, Bulls 83

Last Wednesday, just three days after losing to the Knicks in embarrassing fashion, the Magic took our their frustration on the Bulls. Today, they'll try to do it again, only this time the loss fueling the frustration was at the hands of the Timberwolves. Dwight Howard had 30 points and 14 rebounds. Let's hope for more of the same tonight.

Mike has the recap. Go Magic.

The Dream Shake posted its predictions for how the rest of the Rockets' season would play out. I shamelessly ripped-off was inspired by that post, and now submit a Magic-oriented version of it, with a mathematic twist. The "Prediction" column shows how I think we'll do. The "Worst Case" column shows what we'll do if Murphy's Law rears its ugly head. The "Pythagorean Odds" column shows our chances of winning, based on point differential. I'll explain more after the table.

Date	Opponent	Prediction		Worst Case		Pyth. Odds
21 March	vs. Philadelphia	W	46-25	L	45-26	.721
22 March	@ Atlanta	W	47-25	W	46-26	.641
25 March	vs. San Antonio	W	48-25	L	46-27	.611
28 March	@ Milwaukee	L	48-26	L	46-28	.769
1 April	vs. New Orleans	L	48-27	L	46-29	.576
5 April	@ Cleveland	W	49-27	L	46-30	.572
6 April	@ New York	W	50-27	L	46-31	.770
9 April	vs. Chicago	W	51-27	W	47-31	.803
11 April	vs. Minnesota	W	52-27	W	48-31	.886
13 April	@ Chicago	W	53-27	L	48-32	.645
15 April	@ Atlanta	L	53-28	L	48-33	.641
16 April	vs. Washington	W	54-28	L	48-34	.750
		9-3		3-9		12-0 (!)

I'm not sure how much stock you put into this metric, but if its predictions hold true -- that is, if the team that's predicted to win actually does win -- the Magic will run the table the rest of the way and finish with a record of 57-25. Likely? No. Possible? Practically and mathematically speaking, absolutely.

There are some caveats here, obviously. For one thing, I did not calculate the splits for home and road teams; that is, I considered only a team's overall point differential, not its respective home and road differentials. For another, the Cavaliers actually have a sub-.500 Pythagorean win percentage, mostly because of the games LeBron James missed. As a result of that discrepancy, the formula exaggerates our chances of winning that game. Considering that it's already the most difficult one on the schedule, I was pretty hesitant to predict a victory. But I did.

In the interest of full disclosure, the last time I used this formula on this site, it predicted we would go 4-2 over a 6-game stretch. The predictions held true in 4 of the 6 games. Another time I used the formula in my notebook, and the predictions held true in again in 4 of the 6 games. So it's certainly not infallible.

As you can see from my predictions -- which are far less interesting than the Pythagorean ones -- I believe there are only three games we are guaranteed to win: Saturday against Atlanta, April 9th versus Chicago, and April 11th versus Minnesota. Every other game could go either way, even the road games at Milwaukee and at New York. In fact, I guarantee a loss at Milwaukee next Friday. We're going to come out soft and complacent after several days of rest, and one unheralded Buck, possibly Royal Ivey, will post a career-high. Write it down.

So, just to prompt some discussion: what are your predictions for the rest of the season? Do you think we'll sweep the remaining 12 games, as the formula suggests we might? What's the biggest "trap game" left on our schedule?