More than eight months have passed since the Orlando Magic and the Milwaukee Bucks last met. And when they face each other for the first time this season Friday night, very little will appear to have changed since the Bucks took the best-of-five playoff series three games to one.

The Magic began the weekend with the seventh-best record in the Eastern Conference and with Tracy McGrady again having to compensate on offense for the loss of Grant Hill. The Bucks were atop the Central Division, which they captured a year ago, and had both Glenn Robinson and Sam Cassell averaging at least 20 points a game.

Even the Magic's recent winning streak isn't enough to convince coach Doc Rivers that his team deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the Bucks and the Indiana Pacers in the East.

"We're not in that category," he said. "They're so loaded."

The Bucks can go to Robinson, Cassell, Ray Allen or Anthony Mason when they need a basket in the clutch. The Pacers have Reggie Miller, Jermaine O'Neal and Jalen Rose. Despite the play of Mike Miller of late, Rivers isn't ready to put him in McGrady's class.

"You've got to have more than one go-to guy to be in that top echelon," he said.

Miller struggled in the first three games against the Bucks last April until he put up 22 points in Game 4.

After the Magic play the Bucks, the Miami Heat will be the only team from the East that they haven't had at least one game against. The Heat will come to Orlando on Jan. 24.

TRYING TIME

Rivers' mind was on matters more serious than basketball moments before the Magic played at Boston while on their recent three-game road trip.

During the national anthem, Rivers was in the locker room and on the phone with his wife, Kris, who informed him that one of his cousins had died unexpectedly. Rivers and his wife had had him over to their house for Thanksgiving, so the news was all the more shocking.

Rivers admitted he "kind of wavered" about taking the night off and letting assistant coach Johnny Davis run the team.

"Once I got out there, I was fine," he said.

But a 40-point second quarter by the Celtics left the Magic reeling. They wound up trailing by as many as 24 points in a 110-94 loss that dropped them three games below .500.

"That might have been our single worst game of the year," Rivers admitted.

PASS ON THAT

Before they flew to Boston, the Magic spent New Year's Eve in New York after defeating the Knicks the previous evening at Madison Square Garden. Rivers said McGrady and Miller went down to Times Square before midnight, but players who had family in town had no desire to deal with the crowds and tighter-than-usual security.

"The first thing I thought of when I realized I was going to be there (New York) was, Stay away from that area,' " guard Jud Buechler said. "I'm not a big crowds guy. It's not something that I say I want to see one time and I'll never have to do it again. I just decided to stay away from that craziness."

Buechler and Pat Garrity went out to get something to eat and were told by the restaurant's owner that crews began welding shut before 6 p.m. all of the manhole covers. And they couldn't walk down a street to get to a subway stop because law enforcement agencies had it blocked off.

MAN ON THE RUN

General manager John Gabriel had a most eventful Sunday a week ago. He ran a half-marathon at Walt Disney World in the morning and then drove to Tallahassee to see Florida State hand top-ranked Duke its first loss of the college basketball season that night.

Gabriel is not the only distance runner in the Magic's front office. Senior executive vice president Pat Williams has completed 18 marathons in the last six years, including the Boston Marathon several times.