With the win tonight, the Rockets have won four in a row against the Magic after losing four straight prior from 2/25/22-10/25/23. Houston has won each of its past four games while Orlando has its three-game winning streak snapped.
The Rockets won by four points in overtime. Houston lost in double-overtime in the season opener at Oklahoma City on 10/21. The Rockets only played four overtime games in 2024-25 (3-1 mark). Tonight marked Houston’s first win of the season by fewer than seven points.
Houston held Orlando to 41.8% shooting, including 32.4% from 3-point range. Since the start of last season, the Rockets are 35-7 when holding opponents below 45.0% shooting and 31-8 when the opposition shoots 33.3% or worse from behind-the-arc.
The Rockets outrebounded the Magic by 22. Houston has outrebounded its opponent by 20+ boards in two of the past four games and three times overall this season. The Rockets have 149 more rebounds than the opposition this season. Dating back to 1975-76, no other team had a differential better than 137 boards through the first 12 games of a season.
Houston shot 25-of-29 (86.2%) from the foul line.
The Rockets have recorded 25+ FTA while shooting 85.0% or better three times this season after doing so three times in 2024-25.
Four different Rockets grabbed 10+ rebounds (Alperen Sengun w/13; Steven Adams w/12; Jabari Smith Jr. w/10; Amen Thompson w/10) while no Magic player had more than 6 boards. The last time Houston had four players grab 10+ boards in a single game was vs. Indiana on 3/13/01 (Kelvin Cato, Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, Maurice Taylor).
Kevin Durant had 35 points while Alperen Sengun scored 30. The Rockets had two players score 30+ points in the same game three times last season.
Alperen Sengun had 30 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists. It is his second 30-point game of the season and his eighth double-double, seven of which have come over the past eight games. Sengun has recorded at least 16 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in all 12 games this season. Dating back to 1975-76, no other player had a streak longer than seven games doing so to start a season.
Kevin Durant 35 points on 13-of-24 shooting. He had fewer than 20 FGA in each of the first 11 games of the season, which was the third-longest streak of his career. Durant has scored 30+ points in three of the past four games after doing so twice prior this season. No other Rocket scored 30+ points more than three times over the first 12 games of a season since James Harden did so nine times in 2019-20.
Reed Sheppard led all reserves with 16 points off the bench and he grabbed a career-high tying 7 rebounds. Over the past six games, he is averaging 15.7 ppg in 25.3 mpg while shooting 59.0% from the floor. Sheppard also had a steal without committing a turnover tonight. He has 19 steals with 15 turnovers overall this season.
Franz Wagner led Orlando with 29 points. He has scored 25+ points in each of the past three games, which is tied for the second-longest streak of his career (4 games from 11/12-11/18/24). Wagner shot 10-of-13 from the foul line tonight and has recorded 10+ FTA in three of the past five games after doing so once prior this season and six times in 2024-25.
