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Magic look to recapture early success

Dec 23, 2007 - 1:57 PM Orlando (18-10)at Boston (21-3) 6:30 pm EST

BOSTON (Ticker) -- The Orlando Magic were the first team to show the league that the Boston Celtics could be defeated. Since then, it has been the Magic who have looked vulnerable. Orlando looks to reclaim its early-season success as it travels to TD BankNorth Garden on Sunday to meet the Celtics.

The Magic hosted the then-undefeated Celtics on November 18, sending Boston to its first loss in nine games, 104-102, on the strength of Dwight Howard's 24 points and 22 from Rashard Lewis.

Following that win, Orlando won seven of its next nine contests to improve to 16-4, but has seen its fortunes spiral downward as it has dropped six of its last eight games.

The latest setback was a 113-94 home loss against the Utah Jazz on Friday - the team's worst loss of the season. Hedo Turkoglu scored a season-high 27 for Orlando and Howard had 20 and 13 rebounds.

Boston rebounded quite nicely from Wednesday's home setback - its first loss in 13 home games - against the Detroit Pistons with an impressive 107-82 rout of the Chicago Bulls on Friday. Paul Pierce scored 22 points and grabbed seven boards.

"The loss against Detroit left a bad taste in our mouth," Pierce said. "It didn't matter who our opponent was going to be this Friday, we were going to come out and really take it to them, really be aggressive, and really play the way we did today."

This will be the final home game for the Celtics in 2007 as they embark on a four-game road trip following this contest.