Sixth-man Keith Bogans moved into the starting lineup while Mickael Pietrus recovered from a thumb injury. Rookie Courtney Lee's minutes have gone up to fill Bogans' normal slot and Marcin Gortat saw season highs in minutes when Dwight Howard sat two earlier games against Utah and Golden State.

Though Orlando's health has improved, Van Gundy hasn't stopped showing trust in his reserves.

In Monday's matchup against the Warriors he went five deep into his bench in the first half and got 17 points out of them in the opening 24 minutes.

Lee, who posted back-to-back double-figure games in the Dec. 15 win over the Warriors (16 points) and Spurs (10), led the bench with eight first-half points Monday. He finished with 12 in 20 minutes of work.

"When we had some people go down recently, we had to produce," Lee said. "I think that confidence we got during those games carried over."

After Bogans' 6.9 points per game average, Lee's 5.4 per night entering Monday was tops among the Magic's regular bench players. Lee has also seen his minutes per game grow to 16.6 per outing.

Those numbers have gone up all while keeping his 3-point percentage high and his turnovers low (just 13 in 22 games). It hasn't gone unnoticed by Van Gundy or his teammates.

"We've gotten good effort out of our bench," Van Gundy said. "And we've been getting that kind of play lately. We need it to continue to play well."

Starting point guard Jameer Nelson, whose play has overshadowed just about everybody recently, refused to give his leadership much credit in the reserves stepping up.

He said he feels like individual players are seeing the team's success and adjusting their play to that level.

"I think everybody is just working hard," Nelson said. "It's not my game that's contagious. I think it is hard work that is contagious."