Nets @ Magic

Who will WIN this matchup?

Brooklyn Nets (16-18)

@ Orlando Magic (16-20)

Current odds:

Brooklyn Nets: (+180)

Orlando Magic: (-220)

• The line for this game is Magic by 5 points.

• The Brooklyn Nets are averaging just over 20 points in the fourth quarter during a five-game losing streak and look to pull out of the tailspin when they visit the inconsistent Orlando Magic on Monday night. The Nets trailed by three points at home after three quarters Saturday before suffering a 121-102 setback against Toronto, and coach Kenny Atkinson told reporters his team has to figure why the final 12 minutes have become a problem. Caris LeVert’s return from thumb surgery Saturday will help and All-Star Kyrie Irving received a cortisone shot in his ailing shoulder in an effort to play again this season, but Brooklyn will need to find the form that led to a 9-3 record after Irving went down in mid-November. “It’s adjustments, it’s focus, it’s a mixture of all things,” Nets center DeAndre Jordan told the New York Post. “I think it’s an all-around problem. But we’ve got to fix it. It’s been what, five games in a row? So that’s pretty bad. We’re going through a rough patch now.”

• The Magic are 5-9 since climbing back to .500 in early December and failed in a chance for a three-game winning streak Saturday by wilting in the fourth quarter of 109-96 loss to Utah. “We needed to shoot the ball better,” Orlando coach Steve Clifford, whose team was playing its third game in four days, told reporters. “We got a little tired, but the biggest thing was at the beginning of the fourth. You can’t be disorganized in this league and they are so well-coached they took us apart.”

• Guard Spencer Dinwiddie led the way again for Brooklyn on Saturday with 23 points and is averaging 26 over the past three contests while LeVert scored 13 on 5-of-7 shooting after missing almost two months due to thumb surgery. LeVert’s return gives the Nets another much-needed scoring option and shooting guard Joe Harris is averaging 16 points over the past three games to push his season mark to 14.6. The center duo of Jordan, averaging 10.8 rebounds the past four games, and Jarrett Allen are contributing almost 20 points and 20 boards per contest.

• Center Nikola Vucevic has strung together three straight double-doubles and is averaging 22 points over the last five games – draining 15-of-34 from 3-point range in the process. Guard Evan Fournier leads the team in scoring (19.0), but struggled to 4-for-15 from the field in the loss against Utah, while wing shooter Terrence Ross is averaging 21.3 points across the last three contests. Forward Aaron Gordon is averaging 13.5 points and 10 boards over two games since returning from missing a pair of contests with a sore Achilles, but is shooting just 40.6 percent from the field on the season.

• Orlando PG Markelle Fultz is just 5-for-16 from the field and 0-for-6 from 3-point range in the last two games.

• Brooklyn is expected to sign former first-round pick G Justin Anderson to a 10-day contract.

• The Nets have won four of the previous five matchups against the Magic, but lost 102-89 at Orlando last February.