The Philadelphia 76ers hope that the Boston Celtics don’t wake up and get better in time to catch them in the Atlantic Division. As such, Sixers fans like myself were encouraged when the Celtics looked ready to implode and end the era of the Big Three. But now we might have the Orlando Magic to blame if Boston finally finds a way back into contention.

The Celtics needed a big boost to stop the bleeding and fuel them into getting back to normal. They may have gotten that twice over at the Magic’s expense, after holding them to 56 points on Jan. 23 and then overcoming a 27-point deficit in Orlando on Jan. 26.

At first, their rematch looked comical as the Magic got more points over the Celtics in the first half than they did in the entire game at Boston days earlier. Going up by as much as 27 points early on was a ridiculous reversal, but it is more likely to happen in this post-lockout chaos – and so is coming back from 27 points down to win by 91-83, it would appear.

The Celtics started chipping away at the Magic in the third quarter and then made them look as pathetic as they did days earlier. Orlando only managed eight points in the fourth quarter and 25 in the second half altogether, as Paul Pierce and E’Twaun Moore both outscored the Magic in the fourth by themselves with 10 points each. Even without Rajon Rondo or Ray Allen, the Celtics were still made to look like the champions of old.

Boston seems to have gotten better even without its one young superstar – or at least that is how Orlando made it look. The Magic had looked like surprise contenders that could possibly keep Dwight Howard around before this week, while the Celtics appeared to be on their last legs. Both possibilities may still be true, but if anything can help propel the Celtics out of their early struggles and become a factor again, these two victories can.

Boston is still only 8-9 and remains 3 1/2 games behind Philadelphia for first place. Yet considering that the Sixers are finally about to face a string of tough opponents soon, the Celtics might have found a ray of light just in the nick of time. The rest of the Atlantic Division is still stuck in mediocrity or worse, so Boston remains the team with the best chance to catch up to Philadelphia.

Should the Sixers start losing more, it would be even worse if the Celtics started winning consistently again at the same time. Fortunately, Boston won’t face Orlando again until mid-April, so maybe it will still have a hard time against the rest of the NBA. If it doesn’t, however, this week will loom even larger as the time when the Celtics finally turned a corner.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident and 76ers fan.

Other stories from this contributor

76ers need to throttle bottom feeders again this weekend

76ers finally fall against an inferior opponent

Nets failing to win and add more superstars

76ers barely break a sweat over Wizards

76ers still unable to jump over Heat

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.