Boston Celtics @ Orlando Magic

Merry Christmas, everyone.

The Magic defeated the Celtics 4 games to 3 in last season’s Eastern Conference Semifinals. The Magic have won three games in a row. In each game, the Magic have struggled at times offensively but have grinded out those three wins. The Celtics, have been arguably the best team in basketball, winning 13 of their last 14 games.

The Celtics enter the game with a record of 22-5, best in the Eastern Conference. The Magic own the second best record in the east at 22-7. Orlando is 12-2 at home, but Boston is the league’s best road team at 12-1.

The Magic are 4-2 all time on Christmas day while the Celtics have lost their last four Christmas Day Games.

Joshua Robbins looks at how the Magic have fared on Christmas Day here.

Tip off from Amway Arena is set for 2:30 pm EST. The game will be televised nationally on ABC. Their pregame show starts at 2:00 pm EST and if you’re in the Orlando-area, you can watch a special pregame show on ABC at 1:30 pm EST. As always, if you can’t watch the game, you can hear it locally on WDBO 580 AM and in Spanish on WONQ AM 1030.

The Line: Orlando -5

Starters:

Orlando

Dwight Howard

Rashard Lewis

Mickael Pietrus

Vince Carter

Jameer Nelson

Boston

Kendrick Perkins

Kevin Garnett

Ray Allen

Tony Allen

Rajon Rondo

The Magic and the Celtics have already met once this season in Boston on November 20. Orlando raced out to a big lead before Boston tied the game at 78. Orlando scored the game’s final 5 points to win 83-78. Vince Carter had 26 points and made several big plays down the stretch to lead the Magic. Carter had 10 points in the fourth quarter.

These two teams met in the playoffs last season and most pundits think at least one of these two teams, if not both, will be in the Eastern Conference Finals this season. Ray Allen agrees and thinks this is a playoff preview.

"“I do [think it’s a playoff preview],” admitted Allen, who wasn’t bashful about pondering potential implications for home-court advantage in the postseason, particularly with Orlando already boasting a win over the Celtics in Boston on Nov. 20. “We look at it as a game we want to win. When you get to the end of the year, these are the type of games you look back at [for motivation and strategy] before the playoffs.”"

Chris Forsberg has that story here.

Paul Pierce is out with a knee infection, but Kevin Garnett, who missed Tuesday’s win over the Pacers, will play with a right thigh contusion.

"The Boston Celtics practiced on Thursday at Freedom High School and prepared to play the Orlando Magic without captain Paul Pierce, who had minor surgery Wednesday to drain an infection from his right knee.The good news for Boston, however, is that power forward Kevin Garnett will play in the big Christmas Day showdown.Celtics coach Doc Rivers held Garnett out of Tuesday night’s game against Indiana because of a bruised thigh, but Garnett practiced Thursday and “looked great,” according to Rivers."

Joshua Robbins is reporting that Glen “Big Baby” Davis could be activated for tomorrow’s game.

Marquis Daniels, Paul Pierce’s backup, will also miss the game.

Read more from Robbins here.

Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy talked about the matchup with the Celtics.

"“I think that obviously the first place they’ll go are into the post more to Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace. I think you’ll see them in the post more and they’ll run a lot more stuff for Ray Allen. You’ve still got contain Rondo’s penetration and everything else. I don’t put a lot of confidence in the fact that Paul will be out. He’s a great great player, but they’ll find a way to be good on Friday. They have a lot of other weapons.”"

Paul Pierce may be Boston’s best scorer, but they have several other options. Orlando will find to find a way to contain Boston’s post players, which means Dwight Howard will have to stay out of foul trouble.

Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Kendrick Perkins, and Rajon Rondo all average at least 12.2 points per game and Eddie House and Rasheed Wallace have had big games in the past.

Orlando must keep Rondo out of the paint and make him consistently hit the jump-shot, something that he has not been able to do in his career thus far.

Orlando’s defense has been excellent lately and they have climbed back up to sixth in defensive efficiency.

Orlando had their best defensive effort of the season against the Celtics on November 20, holding them to just 78 points and 34.5% shooting.

"“The big thing is you’ve got to find a way to score on them. They are a great, great defensive team and have been for three years. There’s still some very very significant challenges.“"

Boston has the league’s second-most efficient defense, but most would agree that it is the NBA’s best. The Celtics give up just 92.0 points per game and held the Magic to just 83 points in November.

Orlando is going to need Vince Carter. He got some good looks in the first game between these two teams in November and should some good looks once again. Actually, all of Orlando’s shooters had some good looks, so they will need to be on.

"“What’s really been interesting about us playing them, it seems like its very rarely play each other with both teams at full strength. We went up there earlier in the year, we didn’t have Jameer. Now they come back down here, they don’t have Paul Pierce. We didn’t have Jameer in the playoffs, they didn’t have Kevin Garnett. It seems like our two teams very rarely play each other with both teams at full strength, but it really hasn’t affected things. Both teams have been able to win short-handed.”"

For more on the Celtics, check out Hardwood Houdini.

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)