The Boston Celtics are having a rough season. After making the Eastern Conference Finals last season, the Celtics seem to have fallen off. They lost Gordon Hayward and have seen a lot of the team struggle with injuries, relegating the team to being in the lower end of the East playoff bracket.

They face the Orlando Magic, who have seen multiple top-stars be out with injury. That has severely impacted Orlando’s season, as they are not projected to be a playoff team this year. However, they have been battling hard every night, coming off a win over the high-flying Brooklyn Nets. Both the Celtics and Magic are 1-4 in their last 5 games.

The Magic are missing Markelle Fultz (knee), Cole Anthony (ribs), Michael Carter-Williams (illness), James Ennis (calf), Terrence Ross (knee), and Jonathan Isaac (knee). Meanwhile, the Celtics will miss Tristan Thompson and Romeo Langford due to COVID protocols. Tacko Fall will be out with an ankle injury.

Both teams have their issues right now, but one still has high expectations for the season. So who wins this Eastern Conference clash between two playoff teams from 2020?

Boston Celtics vs Orlando Magic: Lineups

The Magic are expected to start with Chasson Randle, Evan Fournier, Al-Farouq Aminu, Aaron Gordon, and Nikola Vucevic. This is the same lineup that took down the Brooklyn Nets. Meanwhile, the Celtics will take the floor with Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Daniel Theis.

Will the Celtics return to their winning ways?

This is an interesting game due to the similar stretch of form by two teams that were expected to have contrarian seasons. After the Magic saw Fultz go down with injury, their season was wrapped. However, they have been playing to win, and it has reflected with their victories this season. They do end up losing a lot more than they win.

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The Celtics, on the other hand, were considered to be a top-tier Eastern team. However, their form has been very poor all season long. They are coming off a loss to the Sacramento Kings and will be looking at this game as their opportunity to start winning again.

For our prediction, we are going with the Celtics. Teams as loaded as Boston usually find their rhythm over such stretched. With Smart still slowly being reintroduced into the team, the team should start getting more continuity on the court and hopefully win this game.