Win four, lose two. Win one, lose one. Win three, lose another two.

Lately, that's been the fate of the streaky Orlando Magic, a team whose temperature is usually either really hot or really cold depending on the day of the week.

But the same also could be said for a number of up-and-down Eastern Conference teams locked in a messy logjam in the standings. Detroit (23-20), Philadelphia (23-22), Indiana (24-23), Orlando (23-23), Washington (21-21) and Charlotte (21-23) comprise seeds five through 10 and are separated by a mere 21/2 games.

Just last week, the Magic were riding a three-game winning streak and looked as though they were ready to overtake Toronto for fourth place in the East. But following disappointing losses to the Raptors and the Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando would be the eighth seed if the playoffs started today.

Having so many teams jammed together is good and bad for a streaky team like the Magic. Put together a winning streak and they could rise into a position that would allow them to hold the homecourt advantage in the playoffs. But should they go on a prolonged losing streak, they could very easily plummet a number of spots in just a matter of days.

"I really think it is going to go on like this the rest of the season," Magic coach Doc Rivers said Thursday. "I'm not sure any of the teams bunched together are good enough to run away from the rest. For us, the injury thing has been such a problem. And it seems like everybody else is having surprising seasons -- be it good or bad."

Orlando's opponent tonight, Detroit, has been surprising in a good way. The Pistons won just 32 games last season, but have played well so far. Like the Magic, they have been as erratic as the stock market. Detroit started the season 14-6, but then lost 13 of 16, including seven in a row at one point. But they have since turned it around again, winning six of the past seven.

"It's the craziest thing how we can't catch anybody when they are struggling or have their top players out," Rivers joked. "I think we've played one team (Atlanta) that was without Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Jason Terry for fighting. I was joking with Shaq (O'Neal) that I was hoping he would have punched somebody (Wednesday) and missed our game."

Orlando will once again visit Detroit without injured star Grant Hill, who has yet to make his return to the city where he spent the first six seasons of his career playing for the Pistons. And the Magic -- already without veteran Patrick Ewing (Achilles' tendinitis) -- might also be without center Horace Grant because of an intestinal virus. Grant, 36, did not play Wednesday against the Lakers. Not only did his former Los Angeles teammates tease him with a chalkboard message that read "Where's Horace? Shaq-ahhrea," but Rivers was critical of him for "not showing up and at least giving it a go."

Grant, who plans to retire at season's end, did not practice on Thursday and did not accompany the team on its afternoon flight to Detroit. Rivers said he expects Grant to fly to Detroit today and could play tonight, but even that plan is dicey. Detroit was hit with six inches of snow on Wednesday and an ice storm warning was out for Thursday and today.

Every time the Magic have put together a positive run this season, they have fallen back to the pack with more mediocre play. But there has been some consistency to the season -- mediocrity. Regardless of the site or the foes, Orlando's play has been consistently ordinary. For example, it is four games over .500 at home and four games under .500 on the road. The Magic are 13-11 against Eastern Conference teams and 10-12 against the West. Also, they are eight games under .500 against teams with winning records, but seven games over .500 against foes with losing marks. Fittingly, their 23-23 is the same as it was after 46 games last season.

"I really think we're going to get going real soon and start playing better basketball," said Magic Tracy McGrady, who was chosen earlier this week as a reserve for the NBA All-Star Game. "In the first half, we had a heck of a schedule and .500 is actually pretty good. Some teams in the East like Washington haven't even had a West Coast trip yet and we're finished with our two trips out West. I think we're going to get on a roll and get way above that .500 mark."

It might take that for the Magic to get into the playoffs because of all the congestion in the middle of the pack. New Jersey, Boston, Detroit and Washington didn't make the playoffs last season, but are much improved and clearly in the hunt now. And others expected to be near the top of the division -- Philadelphia, Charlotte and New York -- are fighting just to get back into the race after dreadful starts to the season.

"Charlotte has a chance to break out of the pack because it sounds like they are about to get (injured forward Jamal) Mashburn back," Rivers said. "But (head coach) Paul Silas said their impending move has been the biggest hindrance to this season and hasn't allowed them to focus.

"I really don't think we've had a problem with (the potential sale of the Magic). Maybe I'm just naive, but I think our guys have done a pretty good job just focusing on the basketball part of it. I just really think we can be better in the second half of the season. I told some of our guys that I really think we can get to that third seed and they kind of looked at me like I was an alien. But I really think we're going to play much better the second half of the season."