Chris Gatling's great play has helped the Magic surprise everyone.

Anyway, let's cut right to the chase: Here's the Monday version of Around The Rim, summing up the weekend's action. Any comments, click here and e-mail us.

Right to the Heroes and Goats ... We give Shawn Bradley a lot of grief, so we'd be remiss if we didn't recognize his domination of Chicago's Will Perdue and Chris Anstey on Saturday night -- 17 points, 6 rebounds and 5 blocks. Hey, it ain't that much, but it all looks the same in the boxscore. ... The Nets shot .337 on Saturday night and lost by 39. Keith Van Horn and Stephon Marbury combined to shoot 8-for-35. Is this a broken record? We're tired of ripping them in Around The Rim. ... Vince Carter vs. Antawn Jamison? At least Jamison had a good game (25 and 9) though his team got strafed at home. ... Here are some other names from the weekend.

Heroes ...
Darrell Armstrong Magic 33 and 16 assists in impressive weekend split	Tyrone Hill 76ers 30 and 22 boards in weekend sweep of Cavs, Bucks	Gary Payton Sonics 51, 14 rebs and 19 assists in wins over Pacers, Clippers

... and Goats
Reggie Miller Pacers Total of 17 points on 4-of-17 shooting in weekend split	Mookie Blaylock Warriors In pair of losses contributed total of 6 points on 3-of-13	Rod Strickland Wizards 5-of-19 FG, 9 turnovers in weekend losses to Hornets, Heat

Tonight's the night
So you're one of the many people that have jumped on the considerable Kings bandwagon? Well, you're not alone. But before we give the Kings the NBA title, we would like to see them beat a team that doesn't stink. Their last five games in their eight-game winning streak were wins over the Rockets (twice), Mavs, Nets and Warriors. Those teams have combined for 10 wins.

So a little trip to Miami tonight and then some more games on a Eastern swing (Orlando, Atlanta, Washington, New Jersey -- ugh, the East is horrible) should tell us a little more about this team.

How do they do it?
The Magic beat the Pistons on the road Sunday night and nearly beat the Knicks at the Garden Saturday afternoon. We must admit that the Magic shouldn't be doing that. Personnel-wise, this team isn't very good. Today, we're going to let some fan feedback from Thomas Winzig in Orlando, Fla., speak for his Magic:

"The Magic have really taken a beating this year. No, not on the court ... I'm talking about at ESPN.com, and other sports sites. I guess they thought we would stink since the team had all its "stars" removed: Penny, Horace Grant and Nick Anderson. On top of that, we replaced Hall of Famer Chuck Daly with a rookie coach in Doc Rivers.

"Aside from the obvious hustle and heart our team shows if you tune them in, I'd like to offer the following stats as proof.

"Darrell Armstrong is ranked 25th for scoring (19.2 per game), (Penny is not even on the list of top 30 scorers ... ahem). Armstrong's ranked 11th in assists (7.2 per game), and 7th in steals (1.9 per game). (Penny is below that at 1.6 steals per game.)

"Chris Gatling is ranked 12th in field goal percentage at 54%. Pat Garrity is ranked 16th at 52.7%. Monty Williams is ranked 23rd at 50.8%. Most of the people above Gatling are slam-happy players like Shaq, not jump shooters. Bo Outlaw is ranked 10th for blocks per game, at 2.4.

"The Magic lead the league in defensive and total rebounding percentage, and are about 6th in offensive rebounding percentage. Three of our losses were by five points or less, including the loss to Portland in which we led almost the entire game, where the lead changed frequently at the end. Then there was the blown call near the end of the N.Y. Knicks game on Saturday, where the Knicks clearly knocked the ball out of bounds.

"The Magic is still in town..."

Since Mr. Winzig left out a few players, and, frankly, stats cannot possibly tell the entire story, we'll help him out. Tariq Abdul-Wahad has scored in double figures in 10 of 13 games and is among the top rebounding guards in the league. He also is a stellar defensive player. Michael Doleac and John Amaechi don't have the shooting percentages, but they are contributing. This team is deep. Overall, the Magic has seven players scoring more than eight points a night.

Let's give some credit to Doc.

A.C. still gets it done
A.C. Green may be replaced at any moment as the starting power forward for the Lakers, but for now he's in the lineup and producing for Phil Jackson. His nine rebounds a game are solid, but last week A.C. made news for a different reason.

Green tied Ron Boone for the longest consecutive games played streak in professional basketball history when the Lakers beat the Jazz last Wednesday, then broke the mark on Friday against the Nets. Green became the NBA's all-time iron man when he played his 907th consecutive game while a member of the Dallas Mavericks on Nov. 20, 1997, passing Randy Smith, who played in 906 consecutive games for Buffalo, San Diego, Cleveland and New York. But the Boone mark included the ABA.

Boone, a four-time ABA All-Star guard with the Dallas Chaparrals, Utah Stars and Spirits of St. Louis from 1968 to 1976 who then played five NBA seasons from 1976 to 1981 with the Kansas City Kings, Lakers and Utah Jazz, played in 1,041 consecutive games in his ABA/NBA career.

Here are the longest current consecutive games played streaks, through last Monday:
A.C. Green, Dallas, 1,040
Hersey Hawkins, Chicago, 521
Terry Porter, San Antonio, 343
Michael Finley, Dallas, 308
Howard Eisley, Utah, 290
Gary Payton, Seattle, 245
Ray Allen, Milwaukee, 225
Michael Curry, Detroit, 219
Bryon Russell, Utah, 187
Derek Fisher, L.A. Lakers, 185