"Over the last few weeks, Gilbert Arenas felt as if he had something to prove.

Not to fans. Not to his teammates. Not even to himself.

But to coach Stan Van Gundy.

Arenas now hopes he has demonstrated what he can accomplish when he receives extended playing time.

"It's just hard sometimes to produce in really short periods of time unless you're used to it," Arenas said a few hours before the Magic tipped-off Game 6 of their playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena.

"It's easy if you're like Jamal Crawford, who's used to it and when he comes in, the offense is straight going to him. Me, I've got to go in and adjust to everything else, and by the time I adjust, I'm back out."

Arenas was benched for the second half of Game 2 and all of Game 3.

But he played 22 minutes in Game 4 because of Jason Richardson's suspension and scored 20 points and added five rebounds. He played 22 minutes again in Game 5, adding nine points, four rebounds and four assists to go along with just one turnover.

Van Gundy would like to see Arenas ultimately all of his minutes with equal effectiveness all the time. But the coach acknowledges that Arenas is still transitioning to the role the Magic have asked him to play.

"I think a lot of guys who've come off the bench for a long time have a comfort zone with that, but Gilbert, he doesn't," Van Gundy said. "So he, I think, at times has wanted to get it going right away and that leads to maybe at times doing too much.""