Magic: Bucks complete sweep of Magic

ORLANDO -- Before Monday night's 101-89 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, Orlando's ninth consecutive defeat at the hands of its opening-round playoff opponent, Magic coach Doc Rivers reflected on his days with the New York Knicks.

He specifically remembered tearing the tendon in his right thumb in a meaningless final game of the regular season.

"I did this in our last game of the year," Rivers said, pointing to his thumb. "I tore the tendon and had to play the whole playoffs with it. It happened the third play of the game (caught on the draw string of a player's pants). From that point on, I said, "If I'm ever in that situation, they can fine me, they can do whatever the hell they want, I'm not taking that chance.' "

With that in mind, Rivers vowed not to overextend star player Tracy McGrady, who leads the team in scoring and was averaging 40 minutes per game. He promised not to hurry back starting point guard Darrell Armstrong, whose injured groin was a few days away.

Despite wanting to win, he stuck to his word in Orlando's second to last regular-season game.

By the end of the first half, every player on the Orlando bench, with the exception of Armstrong, had played. McGrady finished with a game-high 26 points but played just 31 minutes.

Glenn Robinson led the Bucks with 19 points and Lindsey Hunter came off the bench to score 15, including three three-pointers, as the Bucks had six players in double figures and beat the Magic for the fourth time this season.

"They're pretty good and we're going to gave to play tremendous basketball to beat them," Rivers said of their playoff series, which starts this weekend. "Milwaukee doesn't need to do any tricks right now. They've beaten us four games in a row. We need to come up with something. And it's not tricks either, it's just solid basketball."

Therein lies the mystery. While the Bucks already had the second spot in the Eastern Conference locked up and had little to play for, the game did have importance to the Magic. With so many pundits predicting that the Magic will be swept away in Round 1, what better way to send a message by finally finding a way to beat the Bucks?

"We wanted to win the game, make no mistake about that," Rivers said.

Usually, it's Ray Allen (14 points), Sam Cassell (nine) and Robinson who supply Orlando's agony and Monday they did their thing. But contributions from reserves Hunter, Ervin Johnson (13 points, seven rebounds) and Jason Caffey (11 and seven) also made a difference.

"When you think about it, their big three really didn't hurt us," McGrady said. "The guys that hurt us were (Darvin) Ham, Caffey and Johnson. That's why we lost this game. Yeah, we struggled, but I think we defended their big three. But if we let those other guys get off like that with their energy and their hustle we're not going to beat them."

Added Rivers: "Our bench has been outplayed all four times that we've played this team. Their bench and other guys really hurt us. ... What it showed me was that our guys have to take their game up."

Orlando had a mathematical chance to move past Toronto and finish sixth in the East, earning the Magic a right to play Miami instead in the opening round. But it took Orlando 24 minutes to figure that out.

The Magic was out of synch in the first half, hitting 38 percent and committing nine turnovers. Behind six points from Ham, the Bucks finished the second quarter on a 13-1 run to take a 53-39 lead into the break.

But in the third quarter Orlando began looking more like a team that had battled all season for a playoff spot. With a little more urgency in their step, the Orlando players came to life. With runs of eight and five points, the Magic fought back and took a 66-65 lead on a three-pointer by Dee Brown with 3:36 left.

The Bucks finally took control with a 6-0 run early in the fourth quarter to take a 12-point lead at 83-71.

"Nobody in this locker room thinks we can't beat this team," Brown said.

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