The latest strategy being employed by the Orlando Magic in the never ending saga which is Grant Hill's ankle is to keep their star grounded.  Literally.

John Denton of Florida Today writes that the belief around Orlando is that airline travel has an adverse affect on the painful joint.

"Maybe the one thing we know for sure about this is that flying absolutely affects his ankle," Magic coach Doc Rivers said. "If he had flown up here, there would have been a chance he couldn't have played. And then he might not have played (tonight) against Detroit either."

As it stands Hill missed the Philadelphia game after not travelling with the team, but now is a chance to suit up against his ex-team the Detroit Pistons at home.

"It's no coincidence that's he's struggled on all of our West Coast trips after all of those five-hour flights," Rivers said.

Shira Springer of the Boston Globe reports: On the first day that NBA teams can sign players to 10-day contracts, the Boston Celtics aren't going to waste anytime in signing someone to help their often injury-depleted roster.

Today, the Celtics will sign center/forward Mikki Moore to a 10-day contract today, expanding their roster to 13 players.

However, Grant Long was the Celtics' first choice until it was learned he had a broken left hand.

''We had a desire to bring in Grant Long, but Grant has a broken hand, so we are not going to sign a player with a broken hand,'' said coach Jim O'Brien. ''He's coming in to have our medical people examine the break and give us the best understanding as to when [he'll] be ready to play. We are in a situation where if Mikki Moore is the guy, then there will be no Grant Long.

''If Grant Long is able to play 20 days from now, and we don't think that what Mikki is giving us is [good enough], then we'll look at our options and they may or may not include Grant. My hope is that we don't have to be in a position to sign Grant, that Moore will be everything that we want, that he will be the guy that will be our 13th man. If Long was healthy, he would be coming in right now, but he's not, so we're bringing in the next-best thing.''

As for Moore, he had been playing with the NBDL's Roanoke Dazzle, and was widely regarded as the top player in the minor leagues this season. He was averaging 15.0 points per game, 7.9 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks for the Dazzle.

Forward Ruben Wolkowyski is likely to be the player that goes on the Injured list.

He might be a member of the All-Defensive second team, but Cliff Robinson believes he is not getting the respect that a 14 year veteran of his status should.  After fouling out against both Orlando and Portland in the last week, Robinson's exchanges with the referees have consisted simply of "What did I do?", yet the responses he has received have not helped his cause.

"I'm not going to just let a guy come down, get to his spot and catch the ball," Robinson said. "When you're not getting the calls you think you should be getting it takes away some of your aggression."

Against the Magic the refs sent Orlando star Tracy McGrady to the line 21 times - seven more than the entire Detroit team.  Behind a 28-9 scoring advantage from the line the Magic were able to deflate the Pistons 104-99, angering some of the players.