By MICHAEL HUNT
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: March 24, 2002
OK, so Tracy McGrady and his aching back remained in Orlando. You think the Milwaukee Bucks gave a Mickey Mouse behind?

Bucks-Magic


Photo/Dale Guldan
Ray Allen tips a rebound away from Troy Hudson in the first period at the Bradley Center Sunday.


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Standings | Statistics

Maybe no team in the league needed a victory, any kind of victory, more than the Bucks, whose sinking confidence was enhanced for at least 48 hours with a 110-85 romp against the Magic, clearly lottery material without its MVP candidate.

As an added bonus, the Bucks (37-31) moved past Orlando (37-32) into fourth place - first-round playoff home-court territory - in the Eastern Conference with 14 games to play. And by taking the season series, 2-1, they also earned the tie-breaker edge on Orlando, should it be required for playoff positioning.

Bucks coach George Karl thinks it will.

"There's going to be a tie," Karl said of the bunched conference race. "I'm pretty sure there's going to be one tie or two ties. It's good to have as many as we can have."

Without McGrady, who dropped 48 points on the Bucks Tuesday in a 10-point Magic victory but could not make the trip because of back spasms, Orlando was left Sunday with just one scorer. And the Bucks took care of Pat Garrity early, forcing him to the bench after 2 minutes with two fouls. Garrity, who knocked down seven of 10 three-point shots five days earlier, finished with just eight points, and Orlando never had a chance as the Bucks ran their lead to as many as 27 points.

"With them being shorthanded, we made it our business to win this game, and I think we did that from start to finish," said Bucks guard Ray Allen, who scored 13 points.

With their easiest game since beating Chicago by 29 points 12 days before, the Bucks actually had a chance to enjoy themselves at Orlando's expense in breaking a four-game losing streak.

They shot 52.4%, collected 51 rebounds and had 32 assists against 44 baskets. They executed three honest-to-goodness give-and-go plays, and spent the entire fourth quarter passing the ball as if they intended to shed their selfish ways for the stretch run.

It was almost as if none of the Bucks actually wanted to take a shot against the Magic zone in garbage time.

"We're just trying to get back to playing Bucks basketball, man," forward Darvin Ham said. "It's not about one guy trying to go out there and try to win it all by himself. That's why they put a deep, talented team out there, so we all can share the load."

In beating the Magic for the 11th time in 12 games overall - and 14 in 16, counting the playoffs last season - the Bucks received noteworthy performances from Glenn Robinson (25 points, 10 rebounds), Anthony Mason (12 assists), Sam Cassell (21 points, seven assists) and Michael Redd (20 points). It was also the Bucks' eighth consecutive regular-season victory against the Magic at the Bradley Center, dating to 1997.

There were also four technical fouls as the sloppy game got chippy, a reminder of the hard feelings between the teams. If the playoffs began today, the Bucks and Magic would meet in the first round for the second consecutive season, and Orlando forward Monty Williams said he wouldn't forget that the Bucks left some of the starters in the game during the fourth quarter.

"I don't know if you'd call it unsportsmanlike or rubbing it in, but they put their starters back in," Williams said. "That's how they do things here. They get up for us for some reason. A couple of their guys were running off at the mouth a little too much."

Karl said the Bucks were just working on their passing against the Orlando zone.

"I was happy taking 16, 17 seconds off the shot clock," Karl said. "As long as they didn't make a run back at us offensively, I thought we were OK with not having a rhythm against their zone."

Afterward, it wasn't so much a sigh of relief on the part of the Bucks as it was a realization of what lies ahead.

"You are the guys who are panicking," Karl told reporters after the game. "I'm not panicking. That's the season, baby. The last I checked, Minnesota has won two out of their last 10 and they're a pretty good basketball team, too. Toronto, I think they're a good basketball team and they've had their struggles. I think the Knicks are actually a pretty good basketball team and they've struggled all year."