Magic Moments

After wins against Oklahoma City and Atlanta, the Wizards were looking for their third straight win on Monday, hosting the 13-23 Orlando Magic. Orlando was coming off a win on Saturday against one of the league's premier teams, the Los Angeles Clippers, but had dropped their last game in Washington by the score of 105-97.

Magic point guard Jameer Nelson drives around rookie guard DeQuan Jones during pregame warm-ups

DeQuan Jones practices his ball-handling skills with Magic assistant coach for player development Laron Profit

At 6-28, the Wizards seemed rejuvenated by the return of their star guard, John Wall. In 20 minutes against Atlanta, Wall added 14 points and 4 assists off the bench, and was looking to make even more substantial contributions in tonight's game against the Magic.

Magic guard E'Twaun Moore looks disgruntled during the 4th quarter. Wizards forward Jan Vesely gets ready to shoot free throws.

Before the game, I had already reached over 100 fan photos for the night, which made my goal of 300 pictures very easily attainable. It seemed as though there was a much larger contingent of Orlando fans for tonight's contest, as opposed to the last time the Magic were in town. Magic fans may be living in the past. Nearly all of the Magic jerseys I saw were of players that are either no longer with the team, or retired.

Wizards guard A.J. Price is defended by Magic guard Ish Smith

A.J. Price calls out a play 

I was able to get a couple great pictures during pregame warm-ups, including a photo of a fan posing with Wizards guard A.J. Price, who happened to be heading towards the locker room.

Wizards guard Garrett Temple dribbles around a screen  set by center Kevin Seraphin

It was a sparse crowd, which was to be expected for a Monday night game, featuring two of the league's worst teams. Despite the lack of attendance, I was still able to reach 200 shots before halftime, and finally got to 300 with about 5 minutes left in the game. Since I had already taken my quota of fan photos for the night, I was able to watch the end of the game from a lower level perch, and see the Wizards finish off what was their best performance of the season.

Emeka Okafor led the Wizards with 19 points and 11 rebounds. A.J. Price and Kevin Seraphin contributed 18 points a piece, and Washington hammered Orlando 120-91, earning their 7th, and 3rd straight, win of the season. The Magic were led by Jameer Nelson with 19 points and 12 assists. Nikola Vucevic and Glen "Big Baby" Davis, who was back in the lineup after suffering a left shoulder injury against the Wizards on Dec. 19th, added 13 points a piece in Orlando's second loss of the season to the Wizards.