ORLANDO – Two seasons in the league produced two playoff checks and an impressive share of winning in Minnesota for Stephon Marbury. Then he came to New Jersey this season …

Suffice to say that, barring divine intervention, a third trip to the playoffs is not happening. But Marbury insists he is all right with that because he knew what he was getting into before the trade.

”I already knew when I came here, it [losing] was going to happen,” Marbury said before he faced the Magic’s double-barrel point guard threat of Penny Hardaway and Player of the Week Darrell Armstrong here last night. ”I knew the situation and knowing is half the battle.”

Yeah, but even armed with knowledge, the losing still gets frustrating. Since Marbury began playing with the Nets, he has experienced a 2-7 record. With Minnesota, he was 85-79 in his first two playoff seasons.

”If I would have come from a team that was losing and I got traded, I would have looked at the situation differently,” said Marbury, who has flashed all the skills the Nets salivated about before acquiring him. ”But by me coming from a winning program to a team that hasn’t been successful, it allows me to see things and say things that are going on as far as our team and the reason why we’re not winning.”

And Marbury has been outspoken. He stresses he is not ripping or criticizing, just giving honest evaluations. And he has been right. When he arrived, there was little or no defensive concept, which was the first thing he pointed out. The new coaching staff of interim Don Casey and assistants Jimmy Lynam and Eddie Jordan are teaching on the fly. With games so crammed in, there is little practice time.

Then factor in the revolving door with the personnel. It becomes harder and harder to paste anything together. The coaches concentrated on offense and there has been improvement. But the defense has suffered.

”We have to play defense. If we play defense, we definitely can come out and be successful,” said Marbury, who had scored at least 20 points in eight of his nine games as a Net before last night. ”Offense generates itself. You play good defense – like we did against Toronto when we just came out and ran our stuff – everything falls into place. Offensively, we ran motion offense and we beat them pretty good.”

But victories have been about as rare as nine-leaf clovers. The Nets have played hard but too often are just running in place. Above it all, Marbury said, they must continue giving the same type of effort to the end of this season.

”We need to … keep playing hard. We don’t want to lay down and say, ‘Well this is the end of the season,”’ Marbury said. ”For some guys, it’s hard for them to keep their focus, but we’ve shown a [positive] progression, as far as how we’re playing. Right now, we want to go out and play hard and I think every one is competing. It’s just hard to get over that hurdle. And a lot of it is through a lack of practice.

”I’m not discouraged. I get frustrated from losing. I hate losing. I get mad when we lose but I can’t get discouraged because I knew the situation before I came here,” Marbury reminded.