Coach Stan Van Gundy isn't much for pregame speeches, but he did give his club some motivation to break the 82-game monotony of the season.
Van Gundy has his team looking at a seven-game stretch before and after its all-star break begins Thursday as a "playoff series."
All seven games --- five before the break and two after it --- are against teams that qualified for the postseason last season. The Magic lost to the Dallas Mavericks and beat the New Jersey Nets before Friday's game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Oh to add:
Deal or no deal
Although he reiterated that the club is unlikely to make a deal, Magic General Manager Otis Smith continues to look at trade possibilities, including acquiring another big man.
"It'd be nice to have, but I still feel pretty good about what we have," Smith said.
Otis not as firm on his word as before. We have expendable assets that we won't have next year in these 4 expirings.
