The ghost of rebounding past returns to haunt the TD Waterhouse Centre tonight -- and maybe the Orlando Magic as well.

The Magic might be painfully reminded of their season-long struggles on the boards after a visit by former Orlando power forward Ben Wallace, the Detroit Pistons' rebounding specialist.

Wallace is no apparition, or even an all-star. But his almost maniacal work around the basket for the Pistons looms over the Magic whenever Orlando gets shoved around and decidedly outrebounded.

The Magic, losers of eight of their past 10 games, were crushed on the boards in Wednesday night's 89-82 loss to the Indiana Pacers. Although not a particularly physical team, Indiana moved the pile, outrebounding Orlando 50-35.

The Pacers grabbed 16 offensive rebounds to the Magic's seven, exposing the Magic's most glaring weakness.

Wallace, 6 feet 9 and 240 pounds, gives Detroit what Orlando desperately needs. He is averaging 11 rebounds and a league-leading 3.2 blocks per game.

"I've said before, he is a power-forward version of Jason Kidd," Orlando Coach Doc Rivers said. "He is a guy that doesn't need to score to help his team. He is a guy who can dominate a game without scoring. And he is probably a guy that everybody would love to play with."

Perhaps only Shaquille O'Neal has been missed by Orlando more than Wallace. He was dealt from the Magic to the Pistons as part of the sign-and-trade agreement in 1999 to acquire Grant Hill. Last season, Wallace led the NBA in total rebounds with 1,052, tying for first in defensive rebounds (9.4) and fourth in offensive rebounds (303).

"That's Mr. Rebounder," Magic guard Darrell Armstrong said of Wallace. "We have to put the clamps down and try to rebound the basketball or he'll get them all."

Like the NBA's version of Pac-Man, Wallace will record his rebounding average -- and maybe then some -- if the Magic don't execute simple fundamentals. Maybe they just do not have the rugged, savvy personnel required to be a solid rebounding club. Or maybe, as Rivers said after Wednesday night, "It is what it is."

"The effort is there," Rivers said Thursday after his team spent a good hour breaking down videotape of the Pacers' game. "It's just how they go after the ball. Athletic guys [on the other team, especially small forwards] are getting to the balls. It's a lot of little things that add up.

"We counted about 20 points that we did not get by just little execution mistakes."

Said Armstrong, "That's why they say film never lies. We see the things we're doing and not doing . . . a lot of times we catch ourselves looking at the shot and not hitting the boards, not boxing out. Little things like that are big things."