Magic Coach Doc Rivers stated it simply and perfectly.

"Well, it was a win," he said.

It was not the type of game you go bragging about or create a buzz over winning. Still, the Magic (14-17) beat Detroit 87-78 at TD Waterhouse Centre on Friday night. The Magic will take it. It helps.

If you had lost eight of your previous 10 games, you would take a victory in any form, too. So it was not their typical game. They won with d-d-d-defense. They r-r-r-rebounded. Those were two words someone had erased from the Magic's dictionary.

"Winning is fun," McGrady said, as if reintroducing the concept. "It feels good. Hopefully, we can continue that."

Detroit (14-13) is now in the place the Magic are trying to climb out of, with seven straight losses and shaky confidence.

In the fourth quarter of this catch-me-if-you-can-type game, Rivers called a timeout after Detroit had again whittled a double-digit Magic lead to five points.

"Hey, guys, they've lost six in a row," he told them. "It's not like that is a big confidence group over there, either."

Then his team held off every fourth-quarter rally by the Pistons. They used a little McGrady, who scored eight of his 20 points in the fourth quarter. They used timely baskets from Darrell Armstrong and Horace Grant. They used Mike Miller's back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the quarter and his superb defense against Jerry Stackhouse.

Stackhouse finished the game three-of-15 from the field, and he missed his last eight shots. Miller, considered a defensive liability at times, earned his coach's and teammates' praise for the effort.

"He guarded the heck out of Jerry Stackhouse," Rivers said.

The Magic outrebounded a physical Pistons team 49-42, even though former Magic forward/center Ben Wallace grabbed 13 rebounds, scored 16 points and blocked four shots.

In seven of their previous eight games, the Magic had been outrebounded. In those games, teams had grabbed 56 more boards than the Magic, an average of seven per game. In four of the games, teams had outrebounded the Magic by double-digit margins. Naturally, the Magic were 2-6 in those games, including three straight losses coming into Friday night.

On this night, though, the trend did not continue. Patrick Ewing, tuning up for Sunday's return to New York where he once starred, had seven boards before halftime and finished with nine rebounds to go with 11 points.

Ewing and Armstrong helped the Magic dominate early despite slow starts from McGrady and Miller. McGrady missed his first four shots, including two air balls, and scored no points in the first quarter. He left with two fouls with five minutes, 12 seconds remaining in the quarter. In fact, all game long he was frustrated by questionable calls and fouled out with 50 seconds remaining.

McGrady also endured a shot to his healing back late in the game when 7-footer Zeljiko Rebraca landed on him.

"It was frustrating," he said. "Guys were coming down on my back, trying to hurt me."

Still, the Magic led by as much as 18 in the first half (33-15), were ahead 42-30 at halftime and never let Detroit tie the game in the second half.

"We just got to continue to work," said Armstrong, who scored 21 points. "I think a lot of people think it's over, but it's not."