Miami Heat vs Orlando Magic

In a battle between in-state rivals, the Miami Heat will take on the Orlando Magic. This will be the third of a four-game season series.

So who will emerge victorious with Miami's legendary 26-game winning streak on the line?

Entering the game, the Heat are 55-14 overall and 23-11 on the road. As previously stated, they've won 26 games in a row.

As for Orlando, they're 18-52 overall and 10-26 at home. They've won just six of their past 45 games and two of their past 13.

As we all know, however, rivalry games throw records out of the window.

Entering their March 25 game against the Orlando Magic, the Miami Heat have won 26 consecutive games. They're now seven games away from the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers' NBA record of 33 straight victories.

Can they take down their rivals to make it 27 straight wins?

This won't be as easy a task as the records may suggest. After all, these two teams have already played twice in 2012-13.

Miami's average margin of victory in those games is 1.5 points—a 112-110 overtime win and a 97-96 regulation victory.

In other words, the Heat are unlikely to run away with this win as the numbers might suggest they would. In fact, we're more likely to see a game that comes down to the wire.

After all, what's better for a young team than a streak-ending victory over their in-state rivals?

After facing a slew of injuries and rotational shake-ups, it appeared as if head coach Jacque Vaughn had found one that works. With Arron Afflalo at the 2, Maurice Harkless at the 3 and Tobias Harris at the 4, Orlando experienced significant success.

Unfortunately, Afflalo has now gone down with a season-ending injury—even still, we're inclined to believe it will be Harris at the 4.

In his most recent game, Harris pulled down 15 rebounds while matched up against Serge Ibaka and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Two games prior, he picked up nine rebounds.

Matched up against Miami's lone source of consistent rebounding, Udonis Haslem, it will be on Harris to continue his dominance of the glass.

Haslem has proven more than capable of crashing the boards on both ends of the floor. If the Magic plan on winning this game, it's up to Harris to outproduce him in that regard.

Allowing Miami to capitalize on second chance scoring opportunities is the perfect way to lose this game.