LA Clippers vs. Orlando Magic

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The lot fills slowly and you can walk the concourse without turning sideways, which tells you everything about what sort of night this is. No rivalry, no travelling army, nothing anybody has an opinion about in advance - which leaves a room made almost entirely of local people who wanted to watch basketball at the end of a working week, and that is a markedly better crowd than a famous fixture produces. Orlando are young and genuinely good and carry two or three players who will be expensive to watch within a couple of years. Mid-January is also the softest the resale market gets all season out here. If there is a seat in this building you have looked at online and never once justified, this is the fortnight when the arithmetic finally works in your favour. Friday out here also means the plaza stays busy well after the final buzzer, so there is somewhere to go afterwards rather than a straight walk back to a dark car park.