Fortunately, the Rockets gained 9 points, including James Harden’s 7 points while the Magic had only 4 points. Former Magic guard Willie Green (four) and second-year forward Aaron Gordon (three) were the only other Orlando players to rank in the NBA’s top 125 in charges taken.
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Vucevic eventually walked off the court gingerly and back to the Magic’s locker room, and a team official said Vucevic suffered a sprained right knee.
The Pelicans did start to come back in the fourth, and AD’s defense got MILES better.
With his strong play continuing, teams will likely begin to find ways to slow down Fournier. “Go out there and push ourselves to the limit each and every night and good things will happen”.
New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis (23) is fouled as he drives to the basket between Orlando Magic forward Jason Smith (14) and center Nikola Vucevic (9) in the first half of an NBA basketball game in New Orleans, Tuesday, November 3, 2015. Victor Oladipo had 18 points and seven rebounds…. Even a season ago, this was a game that the Magic would have blown, but thanks to Skiles’ teachings over the offseason, Orlando wielded the resolve to not allow another fourth-quarter collapse.
“We got a lot of work to do”, coach Alvin Gentry said afterward. We have a pretty good team here. We stayed small all night. “We had 16 offensive rebounds and the guys scraped”.
The Magic came into this game on the second-end of a back-to-back and the Rockets were rested. By the midpoint of the second quarter, Orlando had just four field goals in the quarter and trailed 49-46 when Harden buried a 3-pointer with 6:21 left in the half. Houston had 17 assists at the break and led 68-59, but Orlando was undaunted.
The downturn in shooting prowess did not negatively impact the Magic.
Houston overcame 20 turnovers and Orlando’s 58 points in the paint. Trevor Ariza finished with 19 points and three big steals.
With Vucevic beating the Pelicans up in the post, Orlando needed a few type of perimeter compliment for him and Fournier delivered, knocking down four of his nine threes and attacking out-of-control closeouts for other buckets.
“Still trying to figure out where I want to score the ball in the offense, where I like to score the ball, what moves to make in the offense in certain sets that we run”, Davis said.
For the first time in the early season, the New Orleans Pelicans found themselves in a game on Tuesday night.
Houston F Terrence Jones missed his third straight game after getting a cut on his eyelid on Friday night against the Warriors.
Coach Scott Skiles disliked his players’ energy during their 92-87 loss Sunday against the Chicago Bulls. McHale said he could be out for a while after doctors had to remove a couple of the stitches on the cut because they were irritating his eye.
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He ended the game with 5 blocks and had particularly life changing stuff on Tobias Harris that made me do a legit spit take.
