The Orlando Magic open a four-game homestand Thursday against the reeling Brooklyn Nets looking to right the ship after losing six of their last eight games.

The Magic are one game above .500 and sitting eighth in the Eastern Conference, yet they’ve been losing ground to the Philadelphia 76ers for the sixth and final playoff spot in the East.

“It’ll be great to be back home for four games, it’s very important for us going into the (All-Star) break, but we have to take it one game at a time,” Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said after his team’s 36-point loss Tuesday at Oklahoma City.

“It’s hard to win in this league. We have to understand that and the work we need to put in.”

The Magic also need leading scorer Franz Wagner (22.2 ppg) to get healthy as he has missed the last seven games with an ankle injury. It’s his second big chunk of missed time this season — and Orlando has gone 15-11 with him and 10-13 without.

At the same time, Orlando had just 14 points in the first quarter against the Thunder on the way to trailing by as much as 41. Mosley said Wagner’s return, whenever it might be, won’t fix all of Orlando’s problems.

“We still have to wait for him to come back, I don’t think any one person solves any of this,” Mosley said. “We work together as a group, you win as a group and lose as a group. We’re all involved in this. We have to maintain our ability to work on the right things, but it starts with our mental preparation. When the horn starts, we gotta be ready to go.”

Brooklyn has not looked ready for anything lately. The Nets have lost nine of their last 10 games and own a 3-16 mark since Jan. 1.

When the Nets hosted the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, they trailed by 22 points after the first quarter. This came after a 53-point loss to Detroit on Sunday.

“Yeah, more of the same. We got to figure something out,” Nic Claxton told The New York Post. “Like, this is not basketball. We’re supposed to be NBA basketball players. We shouldn’t be getting beat by this much. We shouldn’t get down by this much.”

Nets coach Jordi Fernandez looked for a silver lining, saying his team was competitive in the second half.

“You start off losing the game by 22 points and lose by 16, right? That’s a little bit of the story of the game,” Fernandez said. “I thought we competed at a higher level closing the second quarter and second half. I like our composure and not quitting. We saw some positive things, but obviously the first quarter is unacceptable.”

The game tips off four hours after Thursday’s trade deadline. One of the league’s biggest trading chips is Brooklyn standout Michael Porter Jr., who ranks among the NBA’s top 15 scorers (25.5 ppg) and has scored 36, 38 and 21 points in his last three games.

Porter Jr. in the final season of his contract at $40 million this season and will be eligible for an extension in July. Brooklyn must decide whether to keep Porter and build around him or flip him for draft capital.

Paolo Banchero leads the Magic’s healthy players with 21.6 points per game. Desmond Bane had been on a heater (23, 32, and 25 points in a three-game stretch) before being held to seven by the Thunder. Bane leads the NBA with his 93.6% free-throw accuracy.

Orlando will be going for a season sweep after beating Brooklyn 105-98 on Nov. 14 and 104-103 in overtime on Jan. 7.

–Field Level Media

Penn State forward Gavin McKenna, who was expected to be the top overall draft pick in the 2026 NHL draft, was charged with first-degree felony aggravated assault, stemming from an incident on Jan. 31.

McKenna, an 18-year-old Canada native, also was charged with misdemeanor simple assault and two summary counts of disorderly conduct by the Pennsylvania Magisterial District Court after what was described as a fight.

No date has been set for a preliminary hearing.

The incident referenced in the charges happened on the same day that Penn State lost to Michigan State 5-4 in overtime during an outdoor game at on-campus Beaver Stadium in front of a crowd of 74,575.

“We are aware that charges have been filed; however, as this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not have any further comment,” Penn State said in a statement.

McKenna was among the first Canadian junior hockey players to take advantage of a 2024 ruling that allowed players from the country to jump into college hockey. According to an ESPN report, McKenna is making an estimated $700,000 in NIL money.

McKenna has 11 goals and 21 assists in 26 games for the Nittany Lions this season.

–Field Level Media

With the NHL playoff race taking shape, the New York Islanders are once again in the thick of the action.

The Islanders, as expected, have been in contention all season long, but their chances continue to get better as their captain Bo Horvat continues to get into the swing of things.

Horvat, who missed more than three weeks in January due to a lower-body injury, has played in seven games since his return, leading the Islanders to a 4-3-0 record, including a massive 5-4 overtime win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday when Horvat had three points, including the game-winning goal.

The Islanders and their captain look to continue their momentum when they travel to face the New Jersey Devils on Thursday in what will be each team’s last game before the Olympic break.

“You’d like to think it was coming,” Horvat said after his production against the Devils. “You try to not think about it and do other things away from the puck that go unnoticed and eventually get rewarded for it. So, to finally get the reward, it was great.”

After the break, New York hopes reward comes with more consistency down the stretch. The Islanders are just 5-5-0 since Jan 17, but, led by Horvat’s return, the group feels it has been playing better hockey of late.

“We’ve gone through stretches and games, especially the last couple, where we’ve actually played really good hockey and just haven’t gotten the result,” Horvat said. “For us to get that result (against Pittsburgh), maybe not having our best game, definitely boosted us going into Thursday.”

What should give the Islanders even more confidence is what took place the last time the two teams met. On Jan. 6, the Devils absorbed one of their worst losses in recent memory with a 9-0 shellacking.

In that meeting, New York’s Anthony Duclair recorded a hat-trick with five points, while Casey Cizikas, Matthew Barzal and Tony DeAngelo all finished with three points.

To avoid a similar performance, the Devils will have to dig deep in what has been a challenging season. New Jersey has lost two straight and four of its last five games. The team is near the bottom of the standings in the Eastern Conference.

“The level of urgency has got to go up. We have to go on a run. It’s as simple as that,” Devils forward Connor Brown said. “It’d be naive to not realize what type of position we are and how many points back of the playoffs we’re in. The urgency needs to get going.

“Whether the season is slipping away or not, you have to look in the eye and realize we have a big game before the break. We’ll have an opportunity to reset after that.”

No game will be bigger than Thursday for the Devils, who are nine points behind the Islanders in the Metro Division.

“We know what situation we’re in, but we’re not looking more than a day ahead,” the Devils’ Jesper Bratt said. “We know the Metro and the East has been a good (battle), and we haven’t been able to maintain a lot of wins in a row. It’s obviously frustrating. … We have one really important game until the break. That has to be our focus now and then recharge.”

–Field Level Media