Magic at Rockets
Head coach Steve Clifford is expected to be back on the sidelines as his Orlando Magic try to string a pair of wins together on the road when they visit the Houston Rockets on Sunday night. Clifford left the bench during the third quarter of Friday’s 132-118 victory at Minnesota and was hospitalized for dizziness and dehydration, but released later on and is cleared for all coaching duties.
Clifford told reporters he had been sick for a few days, failing to eat enough, and that led to dizziness, but the 58-year-old missed the end of his team’s strong performance Friday as the Magic shot 60.7 percent from the field and had a 53-44 edge in the boards. “We did a good job of making them play both sides of the floor,” assistant coach Tyrone Corbin told reporters Friday of Orlando, which will try to avenge a 130-117 loss to the Rockets on Dec. 13 when Houston’s James Harden scored 54 points. Harden recorded 30 on Saturday but the Rockets fell behind 20-0, turned the ball over 20 times and allowed Charlotte to shoot 52.9 percent from the floor (15-of-32 from 3-point range) in a 108-99 setback. “We have to do a better job defensively to make our offense better,” Harden told reporters. “We didn’t make enough shots. Obviously, down 20-0 is tough to come back on anybody but we did, to give ourselves a chance, but we just couldn’t continue to sustain that kind of intensity through the four quarter game.”
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: FS Florida, AT&T SportsNet Southwest
ABOUT THE MAGIC (28-35): Center Nikola Vucevic is leading the way of late for Orlando, recording double-doubles in eight of his last nine games and averaging 26.7 points along with 13 boards in three contests during March. Evan Fournier, who is second behind Vucevic (19.6) on the team in scoring at 18.8 per game, missed Friday’s contest and is out indefinitely with an elbow injury but fellow shooting guard Terrence Ross is averaging 25.6 points over his past five outings. Point guard Markelle Fultz had 24 points at Minnesota and has drained 17-of-24 from the field in his last two contests.
ABOUT THE ROCKETS (39-23): Harden added 14 assists and 10 rebounds while making just 2-of-11 from 3-point range in Saturday’s loss and is averaging 25.5 points over his last four contests - almost 10 below his season mark. Former MVP Russell Westbrook (27.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, 7.0 assists) was rested in Saturday’s game and is expected to return to the lineup against the Magic, who held him to 23 points in the earlier matchup. Forward Robert Covington connected on 9-of-16 from the field and finished with 25 points Saturday - his highest output since joining Houston last month.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Houston’s veteran F Jeff Green scored 20 points in the loss at Charlotte - his high in eight games since coming over from Utah.
2. Orlando F Aaron Gordon boasts five double-doubles in his last seven contests after finishing with 15 points and 10 boards Friday.
3. Rockets G Eric Gordon (14.5 points) missed Saturday’s game with a knee injury and is doubtful for Sunday.