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Boston Celtics
at Orlando Magic
1/22/09
Magic -5 over Celtics -
Last season Celtics GM Danny Ainge made two moves that absolutely
rocked the Eastern conference and all of the NBA. When Boston added
both Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen the NBA franchise that has the most
NBA championship banners in the rafters was reborn with one of the
most intimidating starting lineups in the NBA.
After winning their 17th NBA championship against the Los Angeles
Lakers the Eastern conference regained its dominance from the 80s
with the Celtics riding high and looking to be contenders for the
foreseeable future.
Although the Celtics are still relatively intact with only James
Posey jumping ship to join Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets
this season, Boston has inspired a once weak Eastern conference full
of mediocre teams to believe that anything is possible.
With the Celtics transforming from arguably the worst team in the
NBA to NBA champions in just one season, the rest of the league has
been making moves to try and duplicate what Boston did last season.
There are two teams from the East in particular that have made
significant improvements in their lineups and turned their teams
into legit title contenders in the Eastern conference, LeBron James’
Cleveland Cavaliers and Dwight Howard’s Orlando Magic.
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We all knew that King James was going to make the
Cavs one of the best teams in the league one day, but nobody could
have predicted that he would do it so quickly. As for the Orlando
Magic, Dwight Howard has gone from a fairly good center to the most
dominant force in the paint in the NBA today. This kid has gotten so
good in both the rebounding and scoring category that he is already
getting comparisons to a young Shaq back when he was playing with
the Magic.
The last few years the only teams that got any kind of recognition
in the East were the Detroit Pistons, Cleveland Cavaliers (just
because of LeBron) and just recently the Boston Celtics, but after
consistently beating some NBA best teams this season like the Los
Angeles Lakers (twice), San Antonio Spurs and the Denver Nuggets the
Orlando Magic are back on the map and one of the best teams in the
NBA.
Dwight Howard and company will face perhaps there biggest challenge
of the season yet when they go head to head for the second time
against the Boston Celtics in Orlando. The Celtics got the best of
the Magic in their first meeting by beating them by 21 points in
Boston on December 1st, but the Magic isn’t the same team they were
a month ago as they go into this game with a 7 game winning streak.
The Magic are definitely much improved since their last meeting, but
the Celtics have gone in the complete opposite direction after
losing to the Lakers on Christmas day and suffering their first
slump of the season. Boston has gotten back to their winning ways as
of late by winning a few games including a huge lopsided victory
over Shaq and the Phoenix Suns, but as of right now the Magic is the
better team in my opinion.
The Magic are favored by 5 points tonight, but with the Magic and
Dwight Howard playing the way they are and this game being in
Orlando the Magic should be able to take down the defending NBA
champions to extend their win streak to 8 games. Call it revenge -
Magic -5 over Celtics
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