Rockets top Magic for 7th straight win
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Ryan Anderson scored 19 points and Patrick Beverley and Eric Gordon each added 17 points, leading the Houston Rockets to a 100-93 victory over the Orlando Magic on Friday night at Amway Arena.
The Rockets (29-9) won their seventh consecutive game and their 18th of the last 20. The Magic (16-22) have lost four of their last five and are leaving Saturday on a five-game West Coast road trip.
The Rockets hit 15 of 49 3-point shots, while the Magic made eight of 23.
Houston All-Star James Harden had 14 points and 10 assists, but he missed all eight of his 3-point attempts. Trevor Ariza had 13 points and six rebounds.
Reserve D.J. Augustin led the Magic with 19 points, but 16 came in the second period. Aaron Gordon had 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Serge Ibaka scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Elfrid Payton had 12 points. Nikola Vucevic had nine points and a team-high 12 rebounds.
Beverley opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer and the Rockets never lost the lead. Ariza hit a 3-pointer for the 95-87 advantage with 3:50 remaining.
The Rockets led, 79-75, going into the final period. Anderson hit five 3-pointers in the third period, helping turn a 10-point halftime deficit into the four-point lead. The Rockets scored 12 of the first 13 points of the second half, quickly erasing their first-half woes.
Augustin scored 16 points in the second quarter -- the most by a Magic player in any quarter this season -- to spark the 52-44 halftime advantage. Augustin hit three of four 3-point shots in the period.
The Rockets took 26 3-pointers in the first half and hit just six. Harden missed all six of his 3-pointers before intermission. Eric Gordon made just two of his 11 3-pointers in those first two quarters.
The lead changed hands 11 times in the first half, but the Magic took control late in the second period, leading by as many as 10 points.
Reserve center Nikola Vucevic missed his first eight shots, but made his next three, giving him six points by halftime. The Magic dominated early around the basket, outscoring the Magic 30-16 from inside the lane.
NOTES: Magic G Evan Fournier was back in the starting lineup Friday after playing as a reserve Wednesday and sitting out the previous five games with a sore right heel. ... Rockets G Patrick Beverly stayed in the starting lineup despite a sprained right wrist. Beverly played in Thursday night's victory over Oklahoma City, but was wincing in pain at times. "Man, it hurt everywhere, every time I dribbled or rebounded," he said after the game Thursday. "But I fought through it." ... The Rockets, who beat the Thunder in Houston, came into Friday with an 8-0 record this season on the second half of back-to-back games but lost the last two seasons in their only Orlando appearances. They also came into Friday with an 8-2 record in games decided by four points or less, a big improvement over last season, when they were 11-10. ... This was the first time ever Houston F Chinanu Onuaku has faced his older brother -- Magic C Arinze Onuaku -- in organized basketball. Arinze played in eight games this season. Chinanu played in only one and was just recalled from the D-League earlier this week.