WASHINGTON — Viewers saw a new, but familiar, person on Fox Sports Florida’s last two Orlando Magic telecasts.

Former WNBA and Team USA superstarLisa Leslie has been hired as a pregame, halftime and postgame studio analyst for select Magic games.

Leslie will work Friday night’s game between the Magic and Washington Wizards, a Fox Sports Florida spokesman said.

Leslie won four Olympic gold medals, two WNBA titles and three WNBA MVP awards during her playing career.

She began working as a commentator in 2004 for ESPN and also has done in-studio analysis for ABC, Fox Sports Net, NBA and Turner.

Leslie appeared during the pregame, halftime and postgame segments of Fox Sports Florida’s Magic telecasts of the Magic’s loss Tuesday to the Dallas Mavericks and the Magic’s loss Wednesday to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Third-quarter woes

The Orlando Magic have turned into the NBA’s worst third-quarter team ever since their first full game without center Nikola Vucevic on Dec. 26.

In their eight games without Vucevic, the Magic rank 29th in the NBA in points scored per possession during third quarters and last in points allowed per possession during third quarters.

In the third quarter Wednesday, the Magic were outscored by the Milwaukee Bucks 36-23.

Orlando has been outscored in the third quarters of seven of their eight games without Vucevic. The lone exception: the Magic’s Dec. 28 victory over the Detroit Pistons.

“Our starting group isn’t playing well,” coachFrank Vogel said. “So the start of the game and the start of the third quarter hasn’t been good.”

Layups

• The Magic spent the night in Milwaukee following Wednesday’s defeat and flew to Washington on Thursday. The team didn’t practice because it was the day after a back-to-back.

• The NBA released its second fan returns of All-Star Game voting on Thursday. Predictably, no Magic player appeared among the Eastern Conference’s top-10 frontcourt vote-getters or top-10 backcourt vote-getters.

jrobbins@orlandosentinel.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog and follow him on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins.

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