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It took until the 23rd of December to make it to my first Magic game of the season. Boy, did I go to the right game! It was a long day of driving around and we ended up showing up late, but I could not have asked for a better game to attend. The Magic outlasted a late comeback by James Harden and the Rockets to win 104-101. I’ll start off with the moment I got there:

The second quarter was roughly halfway over when we finally arrived. There was still a decent flow of people walking in! As we were rushing to our seats, the first play I saw with my own eyes was a dunk by rookie Mario Hezonja (his only points in the contest). The crowd erupted with cheers as video game Mario drove his go-kart on the jumbo-tron with the words “Super Mario” popping up in the same font that all Mario games have. I was so antsy to get to my seat it was crazy.

We finally were allowed to go down to our seats. To reward us for arriving, the Magic hit three straight threes; Frye had the first one and Fournier had the next two. The arena was electric. I had been to two other Magic games and I had never seen the crowd so alive. Was it because we were playing ex-Magic star Dwight Howard? Quite possibly. The boos for Dwight were still very prominent. Every time he touched the ball the crowd reacted. He finished with 12 points (all on dunks) and overall was very quiet.

Halftime was nice. There was a nice Christmas gift donation to a family in need. The looks on their faces when the gifts came out were heart-warming. Then it got ruined shortly after when they panned the crowd and at least four people dabbed, including the father of four next to me.

When play resumed, we looked great. We started the half four of five from the field while Houston missed their first five shots. Then it started to get hairy. James Harden woke up. He started to pick apart the defense. We started to fear the beard. They clawed their way back into the game and took the lead. A few questionable sequences (a hack on Tobias not called and a flop by Patrick Beverly) led to the Rockets taking the lead. After that, no team led by more than three points for the rest of the night. Fournier’s clutch floater and Tobias’ free throws left us up three with 1 second left. Everyone was standing now. The inbound to Marcus Thornton was definitely after seven seconds but it didn’t matter. He missed brutally and the Magic won. I couldn’t even get the reaction on snapchat I was jumping around so much.

I noted a few things while sitting on the edge of my seat. First, we make a lot of quick passes. There is a lot more flashes to the hoop and backdoor passes. Houston looked lost on more than one occasion. These quick passes also helped us break the double team.

The defense also looks a lot more tenacious this season. I know that was an emphasis with Coach Scott Skiles and it is showing. The biggest concern is perimeter defense. Houston was able to take a lot of outside shots. Fortunately for us, they weren’t falling.

Overall, I was very impressed by this unit. There was a lot more cohesion than there has been in years past. I hope to attend at least one more game this season so I can give you all the rundown again. Going to a playoff game would be even sweeter! But for now, we need to continue to play smart basketball and be full of #PureMagic.