Victory Marks New Dawn for Orlando : Pro basketball: Magic wins in overtime to end losing streak. O’Neal outscores Ewing, 41-38.

If character is what you are in the dark, the light was fading fast for the Orlando Magic.

Thursday, the NBA’s post-teen wonders lost their first home game. Friday, they had their first losing streak of the season.

Sunday, they surrendered a seven-point lead in the last 1:21 of regulation to the New York Knicks, closing fast in the standings and this game too, but out of gas by the overtime, when Orlando made the only field goal and won, 103-100.

Personality attributes might count in the playoffs, but right now, young legs still rule.

“You had us all written off,” Brian Hill, the feisty Magic coach told reporters afterward. “We lose one game at home and two in a row and all of a sudden we’re coming unglued, according to the media.

“Well, we’re back.”

It wasn’t immediately known what Hill was referring to. Had someone written a scathing account of the Magic’s loss at Indianapolis in the NBA roundups Saturday morning?

“Well, he better get used to it,” said Knick Coach Pat Riley, veteran of 1,000 media wars. “That’s how it is when you’ve got this kind of team. It’s not a bad position to be in.”

Hill has a fabulously talented team whose starters average less than 26 years of age. The normal Knick lineup, with Charles Oakley, has three players older than 30 and none younger than 29, but they’re veterans of more postseason campaigns than they can remember. On the Knicks’ combative home turf, negative reviews come with headlines such as “CHOKE CITY.”

When the Knicks were 12-12 in December, they were bombed in earnest. Their remarkable turnaround--they came into Sunday’s game on a 17-2 streak--cut Orlando’s lead in the Atlantic Division from an indomitable eight games to a reachable five.

The Magic, meanwhile, was dinged up. Orlando lost its first home game Thursday night to Seattle, went to the airport, found its airplane sick and went home. Friday, the players flew north on a plane borrowed from the Atlanta Hawks, lost and flew home the same night with their first losing streak of the season.

Horace Grant and Nick Anderson sat out the game at Indianapolis. Backup power forward Anthony Avent was out. Penny Hardaway was cut over the left eye and took two stitches in the Pacer game. If they weren’t unglued, they weren’t particularly happy, either.

Riley started Sunday with the usual problem here: Shaquille O’Neal, who had outscored Patrick Ewing in the two previous meetings, 79-39.

Magic opponents now favor the Hack Shaq approach--put him on the foul line every time--but Riley, working with the usual exhaustive breakdown of recent Magic games, determined that while O’Neal was a 70% shooter on power moves to the basket, he was in the 30s on shots past five feet. Also, Anderson and Hardaway were struggling from three-point range. The Knicks were going to double-team Shaq and invite other players to beat them.

So much for strategy.

O’Neal made 17 of his 28 shots and scored 41 points. He had several impressive dunks, including one with 1:21 left in regulation, giving the Magic a 97-90 lead. After that one, Shaq opened his mouth and roared, giving the baseline cameramen a view all the way down his esophageal tract.

Whoops! John Starks made a three-pointer. Ewing (38 points) made a three-pointer. Ewing made a 15-footer with 11 seconds left and it was 98-98.

Unfortunately for the Knicks, they had nothing left. Riley kept Ewing on the floor the entire second half and his shots were coming up short. Starks went cold but, of course, kept shooting. The Knicks took 10 shots in overtime and missed them all.

The Magic took five shots but made one--Dennis Scott’s three-point basket with 3:20 left.

“They know we can beat them,” the Knicks’ Derek Harper said. “I think they know we can beat them, but you have to do it.”

The Magic, newly glued, was simply glad to have the week over and was counting the hours until the All-Star break.