In a three-possession stretch that epitomized Orlando’s offensive struggles all night, Afflalo had the ball stripped out of his hands, he fouled Harden for a three-point play and then he had the ball bounce out of bounds off his leg. Afflalo, who missed a 3-point try with 7 minutes left that would have cut the deficit to single digits, made just six of 17 shots.
``That’s something I need to adapt to and I can’t use it as an excuse to not have a good night or an excuse to go backward,’’ Afflalo said of being at the top of Houston’s scouting report. ``If I want to get better, I’ve got to deal with the adjustments of defenses focusing in and find a way to get it done. Tonight, I didn’t get it done.’’
Davis, whose job it was to guard Howard most of the night along with reserve Jason Maxiell, scored 18 points and grabbed six rebounds. But Davis again struggled with his shot and missed nine of his first 14 tries. Davis, who had words with Howard last season when the Los Angeles Lakers played in Orlando, took little satisfaction out of keeping Howard quite in the post most of the night.’’
Fumed Davis: ``He still had a 20/20 and his team won.’’
Nelson added 15 points by making four of his six 3-point shots.
Magic rookie Victor Oladipo endured one of his worst games of the season. He missed nine of his 11 tries and had only eight points in 32 minutes. He didn’t play in the fourth quarter.
James Harden scored 27 points for the Rockets, while Orlando native Chandler Parsons added 18 points and three 3-pointers.
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