How many times could the Magic have decided to pack things in and take an embarrassing loss like a good team in the cellar of the NBA? How many times coudl the Magic have put their heads down while depleted with injury and accept the fate of their season, eschewing team improvement?

How many times on Wednesday could they have done this?

A 14-point first quarter lead gone. A Bucks team that refuses to go away and pulls ahead in the fourth quarter after the Magic led heading into the final 12 minutes. This was a case of "here we go again." Insanity -- doing the same thing and expecting different results -- was about ensue.

Insanity did ensue.

Orlando trailed Milwaukee by five points with 37 seconds left in the game. The Bucks called timeout but failed to inbound the ball as Mike Dunleavy seemed to zero in on J.J. Redick and could not find him open. Five seconds passed and the Magic got the ball back. Nikola Vucevic scored on a goaltend from John Henson.

Monta Ellis then split a pair of free throws followed by Tobias Harris putting back a missed Maurice Harkless three. Ellis split another pair of free throws, leaving the Magic about nine seconds left and a three-point deficit. After a foul to bring the Bucks to the penalty, Orlando inbounded to Tobias Harris. Harris dribbled past Marquis Daniels, perhaps trying to foul.

He got to the top of the key and drained the game-tying 3-pointer as Daniels fouled too late. Harris missed the three-pointer, but bedlam had already begun at Amway Center.

Nikola Vucevic started the overtime with a post up and made a big basket late in the overtime period by spinning past John Henson and getting to the basket for a layup while drawing the foul from the trailing Henson. Doron Lamb hit a big 3-pointer and Vucevic gave Orlando a seven-point lead.

The tired Bucks could not respond one more time as Tobias Harris put an exclamation point with a garbage time breakaway dunk in a 113-103 overtime win at Amway Center on Wednesday.

Orlando had finally finished a game to earn its 20th win and 12th home win. Finally a tangible measure of the team's growth.

As far as measurables go, Nikola Vucevic and Tobias Harris provided plenty of those. Vucevic scored a career-high 30 points and grabbed 20 rebounds. Tobias Harris matched him with 30 points and 19 rebounds. Each had five assists.

J.J. Redick will make his much-anticipated return to Amway Center tonight as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks.

The February 21 trade of Redick to Milwaukee was difficult for everyone -- for the Magic organization, for Magic fans and for Redick himself. It was an emotional day, but one the Magic felt they had to do considering the free agent prospects for Redick this upcoming summer, the logjam the team has created at shooting guard with Arron Afflalo taking up starter-type cap space and with the haul the Magic have brought in.

That will not dissipate any of the emotions of the evening for anybody. Redick was emotional when he spoke to David Baumann the day after the trade as he drove to the Orlando International Airport to catch a flight to Milwaukee. He was probably just as emotional as he said goodbye to teammates on the Magic team flight from Dallas to Memphis before returning to Orlando.

Unlike the Dwight Howard reunion a month ago, Redick could very well be greeted with a standing ovation as Jameer Nelson suggested Magic fans do. I suspect Magic fans will comply and greet him extremely warmly throughout the evening.

For Milwaukee, though, the team has to be hoping Redick enjoys some home cooking and gets back on the right track.

Sorry, I am still a little bitter about the botched goaltending call at the end of Game Two of the 2009 Finals. I am sure many Magic fans are.

To be that close to the championship, every play does matter. And obviously we know how far the team has fallen since then.

So when the ending to Tuesday's game between the Rockets and Suns happens . . . it makes you shake your head a bit. The rule has not changed in the last four years, so why did the Rockets go home winners on a game-winning 3-pointer while the Magic crumbled in overtime instead of heading back to Orlando 1-1 in the Finals?!

That deserves a smh.

Take a look at the two plays and tell me if you can see the difference. They are clearly both goaltends:

The officials make the right call here as Jermaine O'Neal's hand disturbs the net and clearly reaches through the rim while the ball is still over the basket. That is an automatic goaltend even if it did not affect whether the shot would have gone in or not.

Now, remember what happened back in 2009:

Yeah, that would be Pau Gasol's hand going clear through the basket. Obvious goaltend. Series not tied. Magic lose the championship.

Still bitter.

The Magic are back from their last big road trip and do not leave Florida for the rest of the season. Only four games remain and Orlando is not leaving the state of Florida for the rest of the season. The Magic will play three more games at home, a welcome respite from the nine-day, five-game road trip the team just completed.

For a team that has won just 19 games this year, any advantage they can get is a good one. For young teams, typically being at home is a bonus. The comforts of home usually mean better play. In fact, that is the case for the Magic with more home wins than road wins.

The Magic though have only 11 home wins. That would be their lowest mark since the 2003-04 season when the Magic also won 11 home games in a 21-61 disaster of a season. Even in those early expansion years, the Magic were a tough team to beat at home. Orlando simply has not been that way and a failure to defeat Milwaukee, Boston or Chicago in the next three games will leave the team tied for its worst home record in franchise history.

That is a tough pill to swallow. Especially considering how much fans have supported the team this year -- 15th in attendance according to Basketball-Reference which is pretty good for the second worst team in the league.

In two recent home wins -- against Philadelphia on March 10 and against Washignton on Washington 29 -- the team has pointed out how important it is to win at home and give something back to the fans in the form of a win.

"It was very important [ to play well at home]," Jacque Vaughn said after the win over the 76ers. "I have made that point to the guys and said it again at our shootaround today. The fans have been unbelievable, staying to the end of games and cheering. It was good to give them a win. They deserve it. We appreciate that they are hear. I have been stressing that to the guys."

Saying it and actually doing it is obviously a different task.

Last night Louisville defeated Michigan 82-76 in the NCAA Tournament National Championship Game. It was a fantastic game that featured a ton of fast break points and amazing guard play. Between Trey Burke, Peyton Siva and Russ Smith, there was plenty of excitement at the basket.

It was a great game and a lot of fun to watch.

Now the countdown to the Draft begins as we look at the top college prospects entering the NBA. Lots of time to get there.

Right now, we have a winner to announce.

In the first Orlando Magic Daily bracket challenge, our winner is GosaintsBrees who successfully picked Louisville to win the championship. He edged past DwightHowardDunkMachine by 20 points. Somehow, I finished ninth (you have a year to step your game up everyone) and was third entering the Final (I had Indiana defeating Louisville in the end).

There is a lot of mystery about where the Magic will go in the long term. A lot of it will depend on where the ping pong balls bounce this year and (likely) next year. It also depends on where several veterans might end up in trades.

There are still roster spots to fill and roster spots to fight for and several Magic players getting a ton of playing time right now who do not have very certain futures. In all, the Magic have five players who could potentially hit free agency this offseason. There are some that are certain to be dealt with -- Al Harrington and Hedo Turkoglu both have decently significant buyouts the Magic could exercise.

For young players like E'Twaun Moore, DeQuan Jones and Kyle O'Quinn the future is both settled and unsettled. All three are getting plenty of playing time right now. All three could become a free agent this summer if the Magic decide not to bring them back.

Jones could hit restricted free agency . . . or he could become an unrestricted free agent if the Magic do not offer him a qualifying offer. Moore and O'Quinn do not have guaranteed contracts next year.

As Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel wrote before Sunday's game against Cleveland, these players are more or less auditioning for a spot on next year's team.

You're only as good as your last game, or in this case, your last few games," [DeQuan] Jones said. "So [I want] to pretty much leave an imprint on the league and our fans and everybody that's watching us with a glimpse of what they have to look forward to next season."

All three could very likely be back for the Magic next year as part of the team's rebuilding project. E'Twaun Moore has spent most of the year as the backup point guard. DeQuan Jones and Kyle O'Quinn have gotten more playing time recently. It seems far fetched to see the Magic let these players go after just one year.

However, that possibility does exist and nothing is ever guaranteed in the NBA. Decisions have to be made for these players and evaluations have to be made.

The important thing is the Magic have the decision on what to do with these three players. If they want to bring them back, it is the team's prerogative.

As much prgoress and development has occurred this year, there is still the reality of the NBA to face. There are draft picks to make and account books to balance. As good as Moore, Jones and O'Quinn have been, they may be the ones lost in the shuffle in the next stage.

The Magic just needed one shot to fall to stem one more tide from the Cavaliers.

Orlando had controlled the game the entire way, taking eight-point leads in both the first and third quarter and staying in the lead for pretty much the entire game. Nikola Vucevic was dominating the glass. Kyrie Irving was struggling. The defense was creating stops.

The Magic were doing everything seemingly right to break this losing skid and go home from this long road trip with at least one win.

Like so many games this year though the Magic faltered at the end of the game. Whether it was fatigue, inexperience or coaching or whatever else it might be, the Magic could not finish and could not eke out a win. It was another disappointing and frustrating loss for a team that has shown plenty of growth, but not the wins that should come with that.

The Cavaliers took the lead with a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter for a four-point lead. They held on, getting to the line and taking advantage of the Magic's tired legs for a 91-85 win at Quicken Loans Arena on Sunday.

Orlando had some nice execution throughout, getting plenty of points in the paint, but the team was unable to hit a shot from the perimeter. When Cleveland made that final push, Orlando could not do much to stop them. The team was caught fouling and could not secure rebounds.

The Cavaliers took three quarters but they finally broke through the Magic.

These articles come out every once in a while as the intersection of money, sports and production makes for interesting discussion.

These articles have also not been kind to the Magic since Otis Smith went on his spending binge in the summer of 2009 and it continued with the woeful trade. The Magic are still paying Gilbert Arenas.

Forbes Magazine came out with its list of the most overpaid players in the NBA, using win shares as its barometer for "overpaying" and focused mostly on Carmelo Anthony and his struggles to make statheads happy. However, the list, provided by Tom Van Riper, includes two Magic players: Hedo Turkoglu and Arron Afflalo.

He gives Turkoglu no pass for being injured for the majority of this season. In 11 games this season, Turkoglu posted a -0.5 win shares and 2.9 points per game on a salary paying him $11.8 million. Then you add on top of that his 20-game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance and a broken hand in the first game of the season and you have a really bad season.

As Van Riper notes, Turkoglu's production has been declining steadily since 2008. The Magic appeared to be right when they declined to match Toronto's offer of $52.8 million for five years. In all likelihood, the Magic will buy him out of the last year of his contract and his time in the NBA will be over.

Afflalo, on the other hand, I have to disagree with. Afflalo might be getting paid a bit more than he should, but for the role the Magic needed, he produced decently well. By win shares, Afflalo has produced 2.0 win shares (on a team with just 19 wins, mind you) and a career-high 16.5 points per game.

It is a common refrain from me, from Jacque Vaughn and from everyone else. This is a year for young players to grow and learn. This is a year to make mistakes and create habits.

The habit part is probably the most important for this young squad. The one thing the Magic are guarding against in this period of losing is complacency or acceptance of losing. This is perhaps some of the reason why Orlando has kept veterans like Jameer Nelson, Glen Davis and Arron Afflalo around. These three players have kept the Magic hungry throughout the season.

And this young squad has shown that the investment has been worth it. Maybe not in the win column, but in the way the team plays. In just this past week, the Magic have shown an ability to fight and work their way back from impossible deficits. Learning to win is the next part.

Maybe the hardest part of that is winning close games. These are the games where one play unfairly gets pointed out and dissected more than any other. Many coaches, like the players they coach get judged on these plays. Vaughn is learning as much as his young players are for these late-game situations as a coach.

The final play in Friday's loss to the Bulls had a lot of observers somewhat confused. Most of that was the execution of it. The Bulls were focused on stopping Beno Udrih all fourth quarter and they did a good job containing the pick and roll. Udrih drove somewhat wildly into the lane and spun into traffic, tripping over his own feet or someone else's and turning the ball over. It was a tough way to lose a game.

So what can we learn from this play? This do-or-die play on what should have been the final play of the game.

Beno Udrih and Nate Robinson were trading body blows as the Magic and Bulls played Friday night. There was no knockout punch to deliver. Just a major whiff from the Magic and Udrih.

Orlando had the final possession, down by a point and got the ball to the guy they wanted. That would be the veteran point guard from Slovenia who scored 18 of his 27 points in the third quarter, willing the Magic back from a deficit and hitting everything within his sights.

Jimmy Butler's length and athelticism helped close that spout in the fourth quarter, but Udrih had one more chance to create. He got the inbound and ran a pick and roll with Nikola Vucevic and dribbled left toward the paint. He spun into traffic and lost his footing. It is arguable whether he was fouled.

Udrih tried to throw up a shot to get the call -- no whistle -- and the Bulls collected the rebound. Chicago was able to run out the clock as Orlando tried fruitlessly to foul, and a tired Chicago team held on for an 87-86 win at United Center on Friday.

The Bulls defense proved to be as tough as advertised, but the Magic broke through it a few times to come back and take the lead. Orlando was always willing to plug away and keep fighting.

After Udrih had his big run int he third quarter, Nate Robinson went on his run scoring 10 of his 18 points in the beginning of the fourth quarter. That helped the Bulls erase a nine-point deficit in the third quarter and gave the Bulls control over the game. Chicago took a nine-point lead as their offense finally awoke.