Injury paranoia is rampant in TD Waterhouse Centre. What with Grant Hill's annual departure for the operating room and Tracy McGrady's wrecked back, Mike Miller's sore tailbone, Darrell Armstrong constant battered state, there haven't been many good-news stories from Magic country.

Wednesday was better. Not great though. A Magic win was too much to ask for -- Orlando lost 89-82 to Indiana -- but McGrady's return was gratifying.

McGrady had spent the holiday weekend in Atlanta undergoing therapy for a lower back strain.

And when he took the floor there was much holding of breath and crossing of fingers.

Would McGrady be able to run like he always does? To spin and twist on moves in the lane? To do his often amazing high-altitude work?

Yes, yes and, wow, did you see that alley-oop dunk?

McGrady couldn't win it, although he made a couple of clutch baskets in the closing minutes, but he finished with 31 points, and if he was feeling pain, it didn't show.

Magic head coach Doc Rivers, himself a long-suffering victim of chronic back problems, had predicted as much before the game.

ALWAYS WORRIED

"Your back will screw your whole mind up," said the voice of experience. "You're always worried about your next move, because that spasm feeling, if you've ever had it, is one of the worst you can get, and you don't know when it's coming. Your first 10 steps you're worried about the next step. And though (McGrady's) feeling good, his last memories on the court are of that bad step. He'll get through that early though."

Early? How about before he found his parking space?

It took a little more than three minutes before McGrady tried to drive the lane in a crowd. He missed the shot, but he didn't shy away from the contact or the running or the jumping or the cutting.

And that was just the beginning.

In the second quarter, he scored off a double-pump, spin-move in traffic and a soaring alley-oop on a pass from Darrell Armstrong.

PLAYING HURT

Just 22, McGrady has learned to play with injuries, to deal with injuries, something some players never learn.

"There are some who haven't learned to play injured and won't play injured, but we don't have a guy like that," Rivers said. "Tracy showed last year when he went through that Utah incident with the torn-up hand -- that might have been his best numbers of the year."

Same deal Wednesday night, only this time there was no bulky bandage on McGrady's hand.

In crunch time, the ball was in Tracy's hands, the team was Tracy's, the game was Tracy's.

"For a first game back, Tracy was pretty damn good," Rivers said, "but we needed help. We needed one more guy."

And we all know that the one more guy won't be back this season.