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.

The Magic's Keith Bogans soars to the basket  for 2 of his 6 points in Orlando's 95-70 win over New Jersey.
Photo by Ned Dishman, NBAE/Getty Images

In a hideous display of basketball, the Orlando Magic defeated the New Jersey Nets by a score of 95-70 to improve to 6-0 on the road and 8-2 overall. Here's the boxscore.

Tonight's game was much like Tuesday's contest against Seattle. It's not that we played well enough to win, but rather that the Nets played horridly enough to lose. They opened and closed the game on bad notes, managing just 10 points in the first quarter and 11 in the fourth. They shot under 30% from the field and under 70% at the foul line. All the Magic had to do was rebound and not turn the ball over, really.

The complexion of the game changed for good in the third quarter, when Sean Williams of the Nets missed a jam that would have cut our lead to 5. Jameer Nelson drilled a three-pointer on the other end to extend the lead to 8. After Richard Jefferson sank two free throws for the Nets, Rashard Lewis streaked down the court for another three, and the momentum shifted in our direction once more. We would not relinquish it.

Rashard Lewis (27 points) and Dwight Howard (21 points, 19 rebounds) played well for Orlando, but no one else distinguished himself. The Magic will need to play much sharper if they hope to beat the undefeated Celtics on Sunday.

Other notes:

• Dwight Howard became the youngest player to ever reach 3000 rebounds.
• Pat Garrity took Trevor Ariza's spot in the rotation and scored 4 points before leaving with an apparent ankle injury.
• Ariza scored on a breakaway dunk with 5 seconds to play, which New Jersey's Malik Allen took exception to. Allen took the inbounds pass, dribbled out the clock, then threw the ball in the direction of (not at) Ariza while shouting at him. Ariza responded by throwing the ball back in Allen's direction. The situation did not escalate further.
• Jason Kidd had a career-high 19 rebounds. He also had 11 points and 10 assists, giving him 89 career triple-doubles. Commentator Mark Jackson noted that the Nets would be much better off if they had a post player who could rebound and immediately outlet the ball to Kidd, rather than relying on Kidd to rebound and push the tempo all by himself. It's hard to disagree with him.
• James Augustine continues to make the most of his garbage-time minutes. In a shade under 3 minutes of time, Augustine hit a tough jumper from the right baseline and also recorded a steal and an assist.

	vs.
4-4		7-2
IZOD Center
7:30 PM
FSN
Probable starters:
Jason Kidd	PG	Jameer Nelson
Antoine Wright	SG	Keith Bogans
Richard Jefferson	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Bostjan Nachbar	PF	Rashard Lewis
Jason Collins	C	Dwight Howard

25 words or fewer: The Magic take a perfect 5-0 road record to New Jersey to face the slumping Nets, losers of three straight games.

Know your enemy: The Nets are a completely average team. They're 4-4 overall, with a 3-3 home record and a 1-1 road record.

Useless information: The Nets' Vince Carter, fresh off a four-year, $60 million extension, is injured.

Bullet points:

• Dwight Howard, at least by this measure, is the best center in the NBA. Jason Collins is known for his defense (not for his offense - just one made field goal all year!), but he'll have his hands full while guarding Howard tonight.
• Our very own Rashard Quovon Lewis played solidly against the Nets last season, with averages of 23.5 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists in two games. More importantly, he shot the ball well: 50% overall and 54% on threes. Let's see if he can score 30 tonight; he hasn't done that yet all season.
• Beloved former Magic player Darrell Armstrong is Jason Kidd's backup. We miss you, Flash.
  • UPDATE: Flash is nursing a thigh injury, so the Nets have signed Eddie Gill from the NBA's D-League to replace him on the active roster.
• Speaking of Kidd, he's liable to put up a triple-double on us. He presents problems for every team, but especially us because we don't have anyone who can guard him. Jameer and Carlos are too small, and Keyon Dooling doesn't seem to have the same quickness that made him so effective last season. But, as we learned on Wednesday night, opposing players can drop triple-doubles on their home floor against us and still lose.
• You may not believe this, but Richard Jefferson is 5th in the league in scoring with a 26.1 points per game average. If he gets his offense going early, I'll expect to see Trevor Ariza come off the bench to guard him.
• Brian Hill is a Nets assistant coach.
• I'll be officially worried if Hedo Turkoglu has another bad game tonight. He has not played well lately and the last thing we need is for Turk to be in one of his shooting slumps.
• UPDATE #2: Al Iannazzone reports that Bostjan Nachbar, not Nenad Krstic, will start at power forward tonight for New Jersey. Nets coach Lawrence Frank made the switch for two reasons: Nachbar, a natural small forward, matches up well with Rashard Lewis; and Krstic has struggled this season.

The Magic's Jameer Nelson drives to the basket against the Cavaliers' Zydrunas Ilgauskas in Orlando's 117-116 victory against Cleveland
Photo by David Liam Kyle, NBAE/Getty Images

Holy freaking crap. I am going to have a heart attack if the Magic keep blowing late leads. Nevertheless, we pulled out a tight victory in overtime, with Dwight Howard nailing two clutch free throws -- yes, you read that correctly -- to win the game. Here's the boxscore.

We held a four-point lead with 20 seconds to play, then watched as LeBron James, a 63% foul shooter, hit three free throws to send the game into overtime.

I'll cut to the chase: the teams played evenly throughout overtime before Howard's free throw heroics with 5 seconds to play. On Cleveland's ensuing possession, LeBron James drove the lane, only to get tied up by Hedo Turkoglu at the buzzer, forcing a jump-ball with seven-tenths of a second remaining on the game clock. James' errant tip went out of bounds, and the Magic left The Q victorious.

Here's the tricky part: replays showed that there might have been some extracurricular activity between Turk and James on the final play. Not only did Turk reach across James' arms to force the jump-ball, but he also appeared to put his knee into James' back, causing The King to fall over. But the officials swallowed their whistles and "let the players play," to use a sports cliche. Stunned Cavaliers fans booed and jeered loudly as the teams walked off the court, with the courtside microphones picking up shouts of "You suck!" and "That was terrible!" among less printable taunts.

What a basketball game, though. It featured 19 lead changes and 11 ties. Even if we had lost, we shouldn't have gotten down on ourselves; either way, we took the defending Eastern Conference champions down to the wire on their home floor. The fact that we ended up winning -- albeit controversially -- is just icing on the cake.

I'm emotionally drained and in need of a shower, so I'll make the rest of this post brief:

• The Cavaliers are an incredible defensive team. Late in the game, the Magic couldn't seem to get anything going. No matter where the ball was, the Cavaliers defense was there to stop it. Our only hope was that they'd hack Dwight, and that Dwight would hit his free throws. We got lucky.
• Trailing by two points with two minutes to play in overtime, the Magic ran a play for... Keith Bogans?!?! He came off a screen, caught the ball just to the right of the three-point line, and drilled a jumper to give the Magic the lead. KEITH BOGANS?!?!
• LeBron James had a triple-double with 39 points, 13 boards, and 14 assists. I want to know: have the Magic ever won an overtime game in which an opponent posted a triple-double?
• I'd like to thank Mike Brown for letting Sasha Pavlovic shoot threes late in the game. Was he unaware that Daniel Gibson, whom I said could be a Magic-killer, was 5-of-5 in the game, including 4-of-4 on three-pointers? Thank you, Mike!
• Jameer Nelson: 21 points, 11 assists, 1 turnover. He has two double-doubles already this year, which is two more than he had last year. I feel silly for ever questioning him.
• If these two teams meet in the Playoffs, it's going to be fun to watch.
  • Cavaliers. Fun to watch. I can't believe I just said that.
• Hedo Turkoglu has officially come back down to Earth. After punishing teams in earlier games with hot shooting, Turk has cooled off considerably. He scored 13 points tonight, but needed 15 shots to do it. And last night, he turned the ball over 8 times. Wake up, Hedo! You're killing me!
• It wasn't just the two free throws late that Dwight hit; he was 13-of-16 on the night. Can he make these high-percentage free-throw nights more frequent? One can hope.
• Before I forget: 35 points and 16 rebounds for D-12 tonight. Explain to me how one can rationalize voting in Shaquille O'Neal over him to the All-Star game.

The Magic get a day off tomorrow before facing Richard Jefferson (?!) and his Nets in New Jersey on Friday.