Houston Rockets vs. Orlando Magic game preview

The last time the Rockets played the Orlando Magic, this happened:

On that night, the Orlando Magic decided to let Harden get his stats and stay home on the other shooters. It mostly worked. If you watch those highlights, you’ll see that the score stays pretty close throughout. The difference was that late in the game, Orlando couldn’t keep scoring with Harden. And thus, the first-ever 60-point triple-double happened. Also, I was able to triple the use of hyphenated words there, which was cool. A triple-double of my own, if you will.

These Orlando Magic are obviously a different team, as are the Rockets. Orlando played at home yesterday and beat the Boston Celtics. It’s the fourth time the Magic have knocked off the Celtics, so they must be doing something right against media darling Brad Stevens and his squad. The Magic current sit at 18-24, just 1.5 games out of the eighth seed in the East.

Man, I wish the Rockets played in the East.

Anyway, back to basketball. Nikola Vucevic is back to his impressive ways and is averaging 20/12 this season. Aaron Gordon will also get his shots up, but has also had success defending Harden in the past (he was not available during the 60-point game). Evan Fournier and D.J. Augustin have had their own Rocket killer moments. And Terrence Ross is averaging 39% from deep off the bench.

Also, the Magic drafted Mo Bamba. He wears #5. And that gives me an excuse to embed this:

Tip-off is at 5pm CT