The Magic's Hedo Turkoglu is all-smiles during the Magic's 102-92 victory over the Nets on Tuesday night. Turkoglu score 17 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter.
Photo by Bill Kostrun, the Associated Press

Here's what Hardwood Paroxysm wrote yesterday in previewing the Magic/Nets game in its daily Ball Movements post:

Nothing Says "Magic" Like New Jersey: Well, then. Here's a nice little recipe. Let's take the team that lost it's franchise point guard and got back an injured youngster point guard, a behemoth underneatoth, and some bits and pieces. Then let's put on the other side a team that has the consistency of a malt with jello chunks in it. Tasty! Now let's put them in a game heading into the playoff stretch run while the rest of the East has improved via trades. Bake for 48 minutes at 500 degrees. Sprinkle with basil, paprika, and half-man, half-season for taste. Enjoy. Orlando at New Jersey, 7:30PM EST.

He got it absolutely right. As my dad would say (and probably did say, if he was watching), that game was not one to put in the time capsule. It was pretty brutal. Thankfully, the good guys prevailed, despite being out-hustled by a Nets team trying to prove its relevance in the East. However, even with their tough play, they needed uncharacteristically hot three-point shooting (the team connects on just 34% of its threes on the season, but managed to go 8-of-17 from deep in the first three periods) just to pull to within three points at the end of the third quarter. Ladies and gentlemen, your New Jersey Nets!

Hedo Turkoglu, as he's done all season, bailed-out the Magic in the final frame. He scored 17 points on 4-of-4 shooting, giving him 25 points for the game. It's a good thing Hedo got his clutch on, too; he and Rashard Lewis, who also finished with 25 points, were the only Magic starters to distinguish themselves.

No, really. Josh Boone outplayed Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson was largely ineffective and played less than half the game, and Maurice Evans -- although he did finish with a solid 14 points -- had his hands full guarding Vince Carter. Stop me if you've heard this one before: the Magic won a game despite not giving a great effort. Fortunately, Keyon Dooling changed the complexion of the game when he entered, scoring 10 points in the first half to give the Magic a one-point lead at the intermission.

Last night's result got me thinking: is this "favorable" schedule down the stretch really a good thing? The Magic have 23 games left to play, just six of which against teams currently above .500. Given last night's (lack of) effort, I worry about our guys getting used to being able to win games with sub-par efforts, which they obviously cannot do in the playoffs. Stan Van Gundy needs to come up with a way to keep his team motivated. Otherwise, [insert your own golf cliche here].

School duty calls, so I'm having to cut this recap short. Check out the boxscore and the GameFlow. The Magic/76ers game thread will be up later is up now. Yes, we play Philadelphia yet again.

	vs.
25-31		36-22
IZOD Center
7:30 PM
Sun Sports
Probable starters:
Marcus Williams	PG	Jameer Nelson
Vince Carter	SG	Maurice Evans
R. Jefferson	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Nenad Krstic	PF	Rashard Lewis
Josh Boone	C	Dwight Howard

The Nets made headlines earlier this month when they agreed to ship All-Star point guard Jason Kidd to Dallas for Devin Harris and other players. Kidd's last game as a Net was February 12th versus Minnesota. In the four games since then, the Nets are 2-2, in large part due to the resurgence of Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson. The Nets' franchise players have combined to score 191 of New Jersey's 406 points in that time span, a staggering 47%. Once Harris returns from injury -- he hasn't played in nearly a month due to an ankle injury -- the Nets figure to be in fairly good shape for the remainder of this season and into the next.

Conversely, we haven't shaken up our roster much since trading for Maurice Evans and Brian Cook in November. We're 3-1 since the All-Star break and boast the most efficient offense in the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately, our defense has regressed to a remarkable degree, and we're in jeopardy of losing our third-overall seed in the Conference.

New Jersey has started oft-injured power forward Nenad Krstic in each of its last seven games, but he hasn't fared well; he reached double-figure scoring just once in those games. Tonight, he may come off the bench, as he's a poor match for Rashard Lewis; Krstic has neither the skill nor the speed to defend Lewis on the perimeter, and Nets coach Lawrence Frank may opt to start Bostjan Nachbar instead, as he did in the first meeting between these two teams, which took place in mid-November. However, for the purposes of this preview, I'll assume that Krstic will indeed start.

Tipoff's at 7:30. Be sure to tune-in, if for nothing else to see Darrell Armstrong play. The second-oldest player in the league, and arguably the most beloved player in Magic history, will back up Marcus Williams at point guard tonight. Recall that Flash destroyed us in early January, leading a fourth-quarter rally to push the Nets to victory over us at the Amway Arena for one of our most embarrassing losses of the season. Let's hope that performance was a fluke.

And don't forget to check out the latest installment of the Blogger MVP/Rookie of the Year rankings, this time hosted by Tom at CelticsBlog.

	vs.
31-19		20-28
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
Sun Sports HD
Probable starters:
Carlos Arroyo	PG	Jason Kidd
Maurice Evans	SG	Vince Carter
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	R. Jefferson
Rashard Lewis	PF	Sean Williams
Dwight Howard	C	Josh Boone

I feel like Willem Dafoe's mirrored reflection in Spider-Man 2: "AVENGE ME!" That early-January loss to the Nets was tough to swallow, so the Magic really need to give them what-for in this matchup tonight. New Jersey is 20-28 and 2-8 in its last 10, yet has a half-game lead on the Bulls for the East's final playoff spot. In the East, winning 42% of your games is good enough.

The Nets let their opponents get to the foul line more than just about any other team, so everyone needs to drive the ball to the basket tonight. Be aggressive, guys.

Jameer Nelson Watch: Stan Van Gundy told John Denton he doesn't feel obligated to play Nelson just because Nelson signed a fat contract extension in the offseason.

Bare-bones preview today, but here it is. Gotta run. See you at tipoff.

	vs.
22-11		14-16
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
Sun Sports HD
Probable starters:
Carlos Arroyo	PG	Jason Kidd
Keith Bogans	SG	Vince Carter
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	R. Jefferson
Rashard Lewis	PF	Sean Williams
Dwight Howard	C	Josh Boone

UPDATE: Thanks to dxwwf3 at MagicMadness for pointing out that the game will not be on ESPN, as originally advertised.