The Houston Rockets defeated the Orlando Magic 128-104 Tuesday at Toyota Center.
Simply put, this game ended up being a breeze for the Rockets (38-17), who won their second straight game to improve to 20-6 at home this season. James Harden led the way with yet another double-double, recording 25 points and 13 rebounds to go along with six rebounds in in 36 minutes. Additionally, Trevor Ariza shot his way out of a bad offensive slump, scoring 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting in 36 minutes of his own. This put an end to a five-game stretch where Ariza failed to score more than 10 points. As a team, shots from the outside were falling in bunches for Houston on Tuesday, as the team shot an impressive 16-of-38 from behind the arc (42.1 percent).
As for the Magic (20-34), they didn’t have the same kind of success shooting the ball from long range, hitting just 6-of-25 from 3-point land in the losing effort. Tuesday’s loss marked their second straight since upsetting the Raptors and gives them four losses in their last five games. Serge Ibaka, despite the defeat, did manage to put together one of his best performances of the season so far, scoring 28 points on 13-of-20 shooting — his second highest total this year — and grabbed eight rebounds in 41 minutes. His running mate in the frontcourt, Nikola Vucevic, also had a monster game down low, recording a double-double of 14 points and 19 rebounds in 30 minutes.
Up next, the Rockets will look to keep rolling Thursday against the Hornets, while the Magic will head home Thursday to take on the 76ers.
