ORLANDO, Fla – The Orlando Magic lost to the Houston Rockets 116-108 on Wednesday night in the Kia Center. Rockets star shooting guard Jalen Green had 26 points while Orlando’s Paolo Banchero led the game with 31. The Magic have only won one game at home since the All Star Break, going 1-7 in Orlando during this stretch.
“We just let it get away,” Magic center Goga Bitadze said. “We let them get away with a couple of easy ones, they made some tough ones. I think we started well, but then they beat us to 50/50 balls and they got some offensive rebounds. We need to understand there is a 48 minute game. We gotta be locked in all 48 minutes and they’re a great team that had a seven game winning streak.”
Banchero joined Magic greats Tracy McGrady and Shaquille O’Neal as the only players in team history to average 30+ points in a 10 game span. Since the All Star Break, Banchero has averaged 29.5 PPG, good for second best in the league and first in the East.
Quarter-By-Quarter Flow
First Quarter
The game started off slow, as within the first 18 seconds, there was already a timeout. This was to challenge a foul called on Rockets forward Tari Eason, which the Rockets won. The overturned call did not halt the Magic’s momentum as Cory Joseph, making his fourth-straight start, got to work. He stole a pass and hit a three in transition, giving Orlando their first points in the contest.
“We had good looks today,” Joseph said. “Over the past couple of games, three or four, we had those same looks and they were going down.”
This made three was one of three for the Magic in the first seven minutes, which is a rarity for the worst three-point shooting team in the league. This included a Banchero triple, making up a portion of his seven first quarter points. Houston was forced to take a timeout as they were down by seven midway through the first.
The Rockets rebounded after their timeout, going on a 16-4 run to close out the quarter. Orlando held the lead for most of the first quarter until the two-minute mark, where an Alperen Şengün shot gave Houston their first lead of the game. Green’s 11 points led the game, where the visitors held a five point lead after 12 minutes of play.
Second Quarter
This lead would be short lived as the Magic opened the second half with an 18-5 run. The quarter began with a Bitadze poster over Şengün, and then a block by Anthony Black, and a tough finish from Black in transition. The run also included another seven points from Banchero.
After a foul on Banchero, the Rockets returned the favor with another large run. Their 23-11 run was fueled by Dillon Brooks with five points, a steal and four points from Eason, and four points from Şengün. The quarter was capped off by a 32-foot three pointer by Fred VanVleet, giving the Rockets a 56-52 lead heading into the half.
“We’re just hooping,” Eason said. “The overall motto that I say is ‘just have fun’. Basketball is fun. Sometimes we get caught up in this or that or just narratives. I think we are out there having fun and if you are out there having fun, you play free and you play better.”
Third Quarter
In the first minute of action, VanVleet poked Wendell Carter Jr. in the eye. VanVleet then went on to mock Carter Jr. in the aftermath, but no technical foul was assessed.
Coming out of halftime, neither team were hitting shots. This changed after Eason made two easy shots from the paint, giving Houston an eight-point lead.
Banchero then made back-to-back contested shots, including a tough finish over Brooks. This brought the Magic to within four points with six minutes left in the quarter.
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The game of runs continued as the Rockets went on a 14-3 run in only three minutes. Three triples during this stretch allowed for Houston to get a 15 point lead. This was a lead they kept throughout the rest of the quarter, with the road team possessing an 88-72 advantage. Green’s 11 points in the quarter led all scorers, with Bitadze leading the Magic with seven.
“Basketball is a game of runs,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “I think we just have to continue to sustain them, understand exactly how you have to balance them out, and making our runs at the right time is what’s going to be key as we move forward.”
Fourth Quarter
The story of the fourth quarter was much the same as that of the end of the third. The teams traded shots, with Houston holding a double digit lead for the next nine minutes. The scoring was balanced on both sides, with only one player having over five points in that time. Şengün was the outlier, with his three pointer at the end of the run giving him eight points.
The Magic made it interesting with four minutes remaining in the game. After a 10-5 run, including five points from Franz Wagner, the game was back to within 11. Following back-to-back timeouts, Banchero hit a stumbling shot and drew a foul. This made the lead single digits for the first time in 18 minutes of action.
However, a few missed shots from the Magic and crucial rebounds by the Rockets allowed for Houston to escape with a victory. This marks the seventh-straight loss for Orlando that was less than 10 points.
The difference in the game was the offensive production provided by the starters of each team. Every Rockets starter had 15+ points, while the Magic had only four in double figures. Most of this scoring came late in the game, while every Rockets starter reached the mark by the third.
“Every night, it’s five, six, or seven guys in double figures and sharing the ball,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Doing it in different ways, and obviously, we have had guys in and out of the lineup.”
One of the few bright spots for Orlando was Bitadze. He recorded 19 points off the bench, his most in a game since the last game of 2024. Bitadze also had 23 minutes of action, which marks his most in over a month.
“My teammates found me under the basket and all I had to do was finish,” Bitadze said.
Next Up
The Magic will look to rebound on the road against the Washington Wizards on Friday night. The Wizards hold the second worst record in the NBA, only in front of the Utah Jazz.
“We’ve been better over the last couple over this road trip,” Coach Mosley said. “I think tonight it got to us and bit us again. I think a big sum of that is going back and looking at it. I think when you didn’t see a couple shots fall, they were able to get out and get some easy ones.”
Tip-off against the Wizards is at 7:00 PM on Mar. 21.