Houston Rockets Take Away The O-Magic 107-94

The Houston Rockets got revenge.

From what?

The were able to get revenge over the Orlando Magic who had whipped their tails 120-113 in the their last meeting Jan. 14.

Don’t let that final score mislead you.

The Rockets were unable to stop the likes of Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton and Nikola Vucevic as they had their way and they got anything and everything that they wanted.

It was cringing to watch some of the things the Rockets couldn’t defend and they looked like a total different basketball team.

It had appeared that they had already checked out long before the game was over.

This time around, that simply wasn’t the case.

The game continued to be close and hard-nosed until the Magic’s young pups cried uncle late in the game.

Joey Dorsey did get the start at center but Terrence Jones was inserted into the lineup late in the 1st and pretty stayed in the rest of the way.

My best guess was this was a Kevin McHale strategy to make sure he gets his rest early because of his possibility of logging a lot of minutes.

Dorsey did grab three rebounds while he was out there.

The 1st quarter was extremely tight as these two teams were going at it but the Rockets did take a brief six-point lead after a Josh Smith turnaround hook. Rockets 28, Magic 22

On the next possession, Vucevic quickly scored off a layup but the Rockets still led at the end of the 1st, 28-24.

The 2nd quarter belonged to Donatas Motiejunas, he just could not be stopped with the variety of jump hooks, layups, free throws and three-pointers to keep the Rockets right in the hunt to maintain their lead.

D-Mo put the Rockets up by five, their largest lead of the quarter, after sinking a three-pointer. It was his 15th point of the game and his 6th of the quarter. Rockets 46, Magic 41

The Rockets and Magic battle it out all the way until the end of the 1st half with the Magic up by one after a Olapido pull-up jumper. Magic 51, Rockets 50

At the start of the 2nd half, the margin for either team was up by was razor-thin but Vucevic, Channing Frye and Payton all work together to build a 5-0 run to lead the Rockets by seven — 78-71 — with 35 seconds left.

But J-Smoove countered with a two three-pointers to cut their deficit to one point to trail the Magic 78-77 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

Most of the 4th quarter was quite close but the Rockets started to pull away with 4:20 left off a Patrick Beverley three-pointer putting the Rockets up by five, 97-92.

For the next four minutes the Rockets would go on a 10-0 run putting themselves up by 15 points — 107-92 — with 49 seconds left.

Corey Brewer, Beverley, Harden and D-Mo all contributed to that stellar run for the closeout.

The Rockets let up on defense just enough to let Ben Gordon get a jumper off with 40 seconds left in the game, making it the final time any team would score and the Rockets having this game in the bag. Final Score: Rockets 107, Magic 94

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This was a lot better of an effort out of the Rockets against the Magic as they split the season series 1-1.

I was impressed not ever having a the slightest of doubt that we couldn’t win that game.

D-Mo led the Rockets with 23 points, seven rebounds and four assists. He did a solid job defending Vucevic, holding him to just 11 points but still wasn’t able to stop the 11 rebounds he snagged as well.

Beard had 17 points with eight rebounds and four assists, shooting a paltry 4-for-14 from the field.

Two of the Headband of Brothers — J-Smoove and Brew — did an excellent job off the bench with J-Smoove scoring 17 points and grabbing five boards as well as Brew having 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Oladipo led the Magic with 29 points, four rebounds, three assists and four steals.