T-Mac's dunk still hot topic

It seems that Tracy McGrady's self-lob pass and dunk in the all-star game is growing into its own legend.

Home for the first time since the all-star antics -- which also included 24 points -- McGrady was given his biggest ovation of the year from the home crowd, and all local media outlets were still wanting to know about the show he put on. The Magic, of course, are hoping the attention and confidence leads to an even more focused McGrady for the remainder of the season.

Asked if that one dunk could boost his reputation, McGrady said: "Probably. After Vince Carter won the slam-dunk contest, he just blew up, you know, leading vote-getter for the all-star game. Probably one dunk will raise your status. That's what everybody wants to see anyway."

Rivers would simply like to see a more dominant superstar.

"Now his job, my job, our job is to get him to do that every night at a higher level," Rivers said.

Give the Knicks an assist

The Magic still point to a 94-90 come-from-behind victory in New York as a proud moment in their season that helped contribute to their turnaround. They won't call it a turning point, but it did start a stretch in which they won five of six games to climb above .500.

In that game, the Magic played poorly -- even forgetting plays that Rivers called -- but overcame a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit.

"There was no chance we could win that game, so you would think. But we did. It proved what could happen if we kept fighting," Rivers said.

Briefly

Don't ask him why, but Rivers has a hunch the second half of the season will be a good one. "I have no idea or no reason, no proof -- I just like this team," Rivers said. "I do. I think we're going to be pretty good in the second half of the season." . . . NBC has decided not to televise three upcoming games -- Feb. 23 against Philadelphia, March 3 at Washington and March 10 against Toronto.