When their worst possible fears painfully resurfaced, the first half of the NBA season resembled some sort of never-ending nightmare haunting the Orlando Magic yet again.

So forgive them now if they feel like they have been down this rocky road before. Grant Hill is gone again, his ailing ankle in a cast and his future as an NBA superstar hanging in the balance. The frontline again is undersized and outmanned, making Orlando prone to beatings on the boards. And too often, the Magic go only as far as Tracy McGrady's dynamic talents take them.

Add it all up and what you have is a team that is at times magnificent, but predominantly just woefully inconsistent. The first half of the season has produced as many losses as it has wins -- hardly the stuff of a team picked by many to be the champions of the Eastern Conference and Finals fodder for Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.

"With all that's happened it feels like we've played 82 games already," McGrady said with a sigh. "We had to go through Grant's injury again and I've got nagging injuries all over my body. It's just really frustrating with all the bumps in the road we've had. We've seemed to maintain it, but yeah it's been frustrating."

But for all that has gone wrong thus far, there are glimmers of hope. Orlando's 23 road games so far are the most in the NBA, and the team already has completed its two West Coast swings for the season. The Magic already have beaten each of the three teams ahead of them in the shaky Atlantic Division (New Jersey, Boston and Washington), and they are just 31/2 games out of securing homecourt advantage for the first round of the playoffs.

"We'd much rather be in a different position, but this isn't the end of the world either," Magic coach Doc Rivers said. "If a statement has ever meant more it's that misery loves company. That's a great statement in the East right now. I think our record was about the same last year, so we can do it again. We wish we had a winning record, but I'd say we'll have one by the end of the year."

The similarities from last season to this one are downright eerie. After 42 games last season, the Magic were 19-23. They headed into their 42nd game this time with a 20-21 record. Last year, the Magic were four games below .500 when Hill played his last game and 14-16 before his season-ending surgery. This time, they were 7-8 when Hill limped off the court for the last time and 12-14 when the staggering news came about another surgery.

And then there has been the issue of the team being put up for sale hanging over the franchise. Rich DeVos, who has owned the team since 1991, alerted NBA officials two weeks ago that he plans to sell the Magic because of health concerns and estate-planning issues. It seems even billionaire owners are susceptible to life's certainties -- death and taxes.

Like last season, the distraction had a noticeable effect on the Magic. After Hill went down last year, Orlando dropped four in a row and seemed headed nowhere fast. This year, Orlando won four games in row before the sale announcement, but proceeded to lose its next two in uninspiring fashion.

"We should have had a couple more wins, but I actually like where we're at,'' Rivers said. "When you count up all the injuries, the schedule and all the other stuff we're actually not in bad shape. The thing you hope for now is that there will be no more distractions.''

What's for sure is that there will be no more Hill this season. The Magic thought he was beyond his injury troubles when he played without pain in training camp and the preseason, and was solid, if not spectacular, in the first 14 games of the season. But eventually the pain returned, and Hill needed further surgery to remove bone spurs on the top of the ankle and strengthen the original fracture. For the player who signed a seven-year, $93 million contract with the Magic in August of 2000, the numbers are not pretty: he has missed 150 of 168 games in the past two seasons.

But in his first game back with the team last week, the 29-year-old forward put little stock in the cast and crutches that have become unwanted accompaniments in his life and vowed that his NBA career is far from over. He said the Magic's improved play and the birth of his first child -- wife Tamia's due date is today -- have helped him deal with the physical and mental scars of another painful season.

"Oh yeah, definitely I know I'll be back," Hill said. "I wouldn't say this is a speed bump or even an obstacle -- it's probably something much bigger than that. But in the long run, I think we'll look back someday and look at this as just a bump in the road for me. Sometimes these are the breaks -- no pun intended."

Even the usually optimistic Rivers was hit hard by Hill's injury. He even admitted to wondering why the Magic and Hill, one of the NBA's true good guys, have suffered such a cursed fate.

Said Rivers: "You wish it would have happened to someone else. You wish it would have happened to one of the bad guys. I think about that every night. Especially when I'm watching one of those guys going up and down the court. I think, 'Why the hell is he healthy?' Grant is a great guy. He does everything the right way. And he's the one who gets injured two years in a row?"

The question surrounding the Magic now is can they repeat last season's strong finish and make a meaningful dent on the playoffs. Last season, Orlando rode McGrady's scoring and Mike Miller's Rookie of the Year season to a 29-23 finish, good for the seventh playoff seed.

With 23 of their remaining 40 games at home and most of the Western Conference powers already out of the way, the Magic think they can better that this season.

"We're used to adversity and I'm convinced that sooner or later everything is going to click for us,'' point guard Darrell Armstrong said. "Really, we're still trying to establish our identity.

"It's been tough this year with Grant's injury, I was playing with a weak back, Tracy was hurt, Mike Miller's injury. So it's been hard to build chemistry, but it's getting there. There were big expectations going into this season, but things happen. The question is can you overcome it? I really feel we're going to move up to that third or fourth seed by the playoffs.''

McGrady and Miller have lived up to their promise, carrying the team in Hill's absence. But the defense and the contributions of newcomers Horace Grant and Patrick Ewing have been disappointing. A refreshed Grant and a healthy Ewing -- who has missed the past seven games with Achilles' tendinitis -- could help the Magic salvage another forgettable season.

"I really do think we'll be better in the second half,'' Rivers said. "The schedule is not as tough as far as the back-to-backs and road games. And we'll have more practice time. It all comes down to health. If there are no other setbacks, I can see us being five to six games better in the second half, and that would be pretty significant for us.''