Even though the shortest guy among them stands 6-7, Scott Williams, Mark Pope, Ervin Johnson, Jason Caffey and Darvin Ham could be looked at as the Little 5 of the Milwaukee Bucks.

They certainly don't draw the attention of the Big 3 -- Sam Cassell, Glenn Robinson and Ray Allen. Most of them struggled to establish themselves in the NBA. Yet, their coach George Karl credits them as being keys to the Bucks success.

"To accept how I rotate them, how they have cooperated and not let their egos get in the way, have been keys," Karl said Wednesday night. "Their coachability has been a joy.

"I expected it from Mark, who is just happy to be in the league, and Darvin, who is a classy person, but Scotty and Jason have been great. Ervin came to me and said he didn't want to start. I had to talk him into it for a while."

Johnson said sublimating your ego has to be done if a team is going to build chemistry. "You have a lot of guys in this league who get caught up in their egos," he said. "We just play our roles. One night, it might be me and Darvin who have to step up. Another night it might be Scotty and Jason."

Ham said most of the players had to take different routes to the NBA. He played in Europe, as did Pope. Johnson never played high school basketball and worked as a bag boy in a grocery store before he started his college, and eventually pro career. Williams wasn't drafted. Caffey had to pay his dues as a scrub on the great Chicago Bulls teams.

"Those experiences humble you, but everybody should go through them," Ham said. "I didn't play in the first game, but will probably be called on to contribute someplace down the line. You have to put your ego away for the good of the team.

"Last year we didn't always do that. We brought our guns into the locker room. This year, we left out guns at the door. We matured overall as a team. I think the guys on this team who don't always get the recognition, our bigs who do the dirty work, showed guys how to do that."

-- Johnson tied a playoff career high Wednesday night with 13 rebounds. Caffey set a playoff career high with 13 points and had seven rebounds.

Williams had eight rebounds and Pope seven, as the Bucks outrebounded the Magic, 53-41. Allen also contributed 10 rebounds to the cause. Johnson, Williams and Pope also led the Bucks' inside defensive effort.

-- You can tell Karl is finding some of Orlando coach Glenn "Doc" Rivers' public statements irritating.

"Doc came out with something about an eye for an eye," Karl said, when asked about some physical play by the Magic. "The truth is both our teams are more finesse oriented.

"In the playoffs, it is more intense and physical. But, I saw the two plays that were called flagrants in the first game and didn't think either one were that flagrant. I didn't see anything that was that extreme tonight."

Rivers first got under Karl's skin when he mentioned the "first round failures" of the Bucks coach in Milwaukee and Seattle.

--The Bucks' Ray Allen, who scored 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

--Milwaukee center Ervin Johnson, who tied a playoff career high with his 13 rebounds.

--Orlando's Tracy McGrady, who set a playoff career high with 35 points, one game after he set a high of 33. McGrady scored 20 straight points at one point in the first half. Only some tough defense by Allen slowed him down in the fourth quarter.

Orlando's center Andrew DeClercq, who scored only three points and had only

four rebounds and provided little challenge to the Bucks' big men. DeClercq

also fouled Allen hard early in the game and got the Bucks' star riled enough

to have a great game.

--DeClercq's flagrant foul of Allen at the 10:45 mark of the first quarter.

--Jason Caffey's slam dunk with 1:52 left which put the Bucks up 99-90.

The Bucks have now beaten the Magic 11 straight times.

The Bucks were perfect on their first 12 free throw attempts.

Ray Allen: "We took care of business at home. Now we have to go there and take care of business (Saturday)."

Ervin Johnson: "We had to focus for 48 minutes tonight. We have one more game to close this out. We need to do to Orlando and play focused for 48 minutes."