Celtics Vs. Magic, NBA Christmas Day: Revamped Orlando Looks To End Boston’s 14-Game Winning Streak

For the second straight season, the Boston Celtics will meet the Orlando Magic on Christmas. Last season, this was a battle between two of the East's best teams, and the major question was whether the Magic could match up to a healthy Celtics squad. Now, however, the question has changed.

The Celtics are humming along as arguably the NBA's best team, having won 14 games in a row despite nagging injuries to Rajon Rondo. The Magic, on the other hand, had been struggling, prompting general manager Otis Smith to make two major trades, bringing in Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu while sending out Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis, Marcin Gortat and Mickael Pietrus. Orlando is now the wild-card challenger, and we'll see today whether their moves will make the team more dangerous against an elite team like Boston. We saw what Orlando is capable of doing on Thursday, when they blew out the 25-3 San Antonio Spurs by 22 points.

Boston made some smaller moves of their own this summer, helping carry them to a 23-4 start to the season. Depth was an issue for the Celtics in 2009/10, but not this season. Boston brought in Shaquille O'Neal to stabilize their frontcourt, and he's responded with his best season in several years. Nate Robinson came in last year, but he's become a good fill-in for Rondo this season. Rookie center Semih Erden has also given the Celtics solid minutes with Shaq banged up at times and last year's starter Kendrick Perkins out for the majority of the season. This added depth has helped the Celtics look fresher and allowed them to deal with injuries to Rondo and Perkins.

Of course, Boston is also succeeding because Kevin Garnett looks like the KG of old. Garnett is playing more minutes and producing more points and rebounds than he did last year, and he continues to be an elite defender. His health has allowed Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to do their thing and not worry about carrying too heavy a load.