Magic at Pelicans
The Orlando Magic and their vaunted defense showed several cracks in a 130-107 loss at home to the Houston Rockets on Friday, extending their losing streak to three straight. The Magic will try to tighten things up when they visit the New Orleans Pelicans in the opener of a four-game road trip on Sunday.
The Magic rank second in the league in scoring defense, yielding an average of 103.8 points, but allowed the Rockets to shoot 55.8 percent from the floor (22-of-39 from beyond the arc) and had no answer for James Harden in Friday's setback. "You know, I feel like we lost against just him tonight," Orlando guard Evan Fournier told reporters of Harden, who scored 54 points and matched a record for an opponent with 10 3-pointers against the Magic. "He's the MVP for a reason. We talked about it pregame that you have to contest shots and just live with the results, but he did not miss tonight, period. He's incredible and give him credit." The Pelicans are enduring their own slide and had the losing streak reach 11 in a row with a 116-109 setback at Philadelphia on Friday. "There were a couple of plays here and there," New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry told reporters. "Our margin of error is not great enough where we can let those go. I liked and appreciated the way we competed. I liked the way we played. But we had an opportunity to win a game. At this stage, there are no moral victories. We have to have something tangible we can lay our hats on."
TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, FS Florida (Orlando), FS New Orleans
ABOUT THE MAGIC (11-14): Orlando is 3-8 on the road but is confident that Friday's performance isn't an indication that the trip is doomed. "(Friday), it was just iso (with Harden), which is the hardest thing (to defend)," Magic coach Steve Clifford told reporters. "You've got a great player in the middle of the floor with more room to cover, and then when he starts making. It's just really tough." Fournier couldn't quite keep pace with Harden but did put up 27 points on 10-of-18 shooting on Friday and is averaging 24.7 points on 52.1 percent shooting in seven games this month.
ABOUT THE PELICANS (6-20): Only the lowly Golden State Warriors are keeping New Orleans out of the Western Conference basement, but the team is feeling better about itself with forward Derrick Favors back in the mix. The 28-year-old missed 13 games with some nagging injuries and a death in the family and collected eight points and eight rebounds in 15 minutes against Philadelphia. "I felt pretty good," Favors told reporters. "My body felt good. My wind felt great. I thought I was going to feel a little bit tired. But physically, I felt great out there. I thought I did a lot of good things. Still gotta get some rust off. But I thought I did a lot of good things out there."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Magic C Nikola Vucevic (ankle) went through shootaround on Friday and could return to the lineup on Sunday.
2. Pelicans SF Brandon Ingram is averaging 29.3 points over the last three games.
3. Orlando took both meetings last season by an average of 26.5 points.