Twenty-three. Yes, twenty three. I am not chanting Michael Jordan’s old number, but counting the number of three-point shots made by the Orlando Magic Tuesday night against the Sacramento Kings. The Magic hit 23 of 37 shots from beyond the arc to set an NBA record for the most triples made by a team in a single game. They were hitting shots from all over the place and nine players helped the Magic capture the record even after garbage time had started in the fourth quarter.

The Magic actually shot better from no man’s land (62.2 percent) than with twenty feet of the basket (60.5 percent). This is just the latest feather in the team’s cap, or decal on the team’s basketball shoes. The Magic already began the week at number two on Marc Stein’s power rankings. For those who are simply casual fans of the sport, these rankings are pretty much like the Page Six of the NBA. They do not really mean anything, but everyone wants to be in the hot spot and bask in the praise from ESPN.

The team helped remove the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers from the top two spots (LeBron James and the Cavs are rated number one) thanks to the same man who made the record-setting night possible. His name is Dwight Howard and he has been living up to the name Superman.

Howard is a 23-year-old, nearly seven feet tall beast in the post that ahs gone from a slam dunk attraction to a true force in actual NBA games. His strength, his leaping ability, and his maturation from the post now have teams double teaming him on every entry pass and every rebound. He still leads the league in rebounding with 13.8 boards a game and blocks with 3.22 a game and manages to average 20.2 points.

What makes him so good is that he recognizes when to pass the ball back out. In between the draw-dropping alley oops he manages to attract the extra defender and kick the ball out to any number of talented perimeter players on the Magic roster. Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, Courtney Lee, and even Jameer Nelson are having terrific seasons because of his presence.

This Magic team may even be better than the Magic team of the mid-90s that featured Shaq and Penny Hardaway before he became a walking insurance liability. While Howard may not be better than Shaq, his supporting cast compliments his strengths perfectly.

Meanwhile, the news that the Los Angeles Lakers fell to number three after injuries have suddenly brought their depth into question and the fact that the Boston Celtics continue to struggle after a historic start is getting buried.

The most telling development from this power shift is that the Eastern Conference, a.k.a. the Leastern Conference has three of the top four teams. The Cleveland Cavaliers are without a doubt the best team right now with LeBron James playing the kind of basketball that puts him in the Michael Jordan universe of greatness. Now, is probably the best time to start stock piling NBA tickets as the rest of the country slowly wakes up and realizes that the NBA on TNT, ABC, and ESPN is a good reason to stay in most nights of the week.