THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ORLANDO - Jameer Nelson believes the Orlando Magic is close to commanding almost as much respect as the Boston Celtics.
Really close, in fact.
"They're a great team. We're a good team," the Magic point guard said. "We're trying to get to where they are."
A quick glance at the standings shows Orlando is rapidly closing whatever gap exists between the teams. When the Magic wakes up Thursday morning, it'll have the best record in the NBA. Better than LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Better than Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. Better than any team, period.
Finding a way to remain on that perch into Friday morning, well, that'd be a neat Magic trick.
It's only one of 82 regular-season contests, yet there will be a distinct big-game feel for the Magic on Thursday night when the reigning NBA champion Celtics visit for a matchup of teams jostling for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference as well as the league's overall best record.
Forgive Magic coach Stan Van Gundy if he wants no part of the inevitable hyperbole.
"I've said all along, and I honestly think it's true: If they'll give us two wins for the Boston game, then I'll make it bigger than the other games," Van Gundy said. "Otherwise, it's not."
At 33-8, Orlando has matched its franchise record for best 41-game start, has won seven straight games and is coming off a road trip where it beat all three division leaders in the Western Conference. No slouches themselves, the Celtics took a 34-9 record and five-game winning streak into Miami on Wednesday night.
For the Magic, which has topped the 45-win mark only once in the last 12 seasons - last year at 52-30 - being part of a matchup of the NBA's truly elite is uncharted territory. For Boston, which started 27-2 before falling off that never-before-seen pace, the defending champs know they're a big game for every opponent, whether the best record in the East is at stake or not.
"Every night we play, the team has us circled. The trick is that we have to circle them back," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "If we can pull that off, then we can be really good. … We're playing for home-court every night. Doesn't matter who the opponent is. And that's key."
It's the second of four games this year between the Celtics and Magic. The first one still stings Orlando.
The Magic leads the NBA in 3-point percentage and 3-pointers made this season, yet turned in perhaps its most brutal long-range shooting night of the year in Boston on Dec. 1, clanging its way to a 5-for-26 showing from beyond the arc. The result was a 107-88 Boston romp, the largest Orlando loss of the season so far.
"They're the team we've been watching," Magic center Dwight Howard said. "The Lakers and the Celtics, they're the two best teams. They were in the finals last year. We want to be just like those teams. We look up to the Celtics, the way they play, their chemistry, the way they approach things on the floor. We want to become a great team like that."
