Houston Rockets look to recover from tough loss last night

The Houston Rockets dropped a game in disappointing fashion last night to the Magic. Can they come back strong on the second half of the back-to-back tonight and get a victory against Memphis?

The Houston Rockets lost last night to the Orlando Magic after controlling the game pretty much all the way through. They allowed a late comeback after leading by double digits at multiple points in the game.

James Harden pretty much ran out of gas on his 3-point shot last night. He tied an NBA record with 16 misses from deep, going 1-17 overall from behind the arc. It seemed like he would eventually hit one, but it was just not happening yesterday.

He still finished with 38 points thanks to his tremendous driving ability and his tendency to get fouled. He shot 10/15 from inside the arc and 15/16 from the free throw line to give him a solid stat line on the night. That stat line wasn’t enough for the win, however, even against an under-.500 Magic team. That’s one the Rockets have to have.

Houston will have a chance to redeem themselves tonight as they go against a familiar foe in the Grizzlies. This is the third time the teams have played this year plus one more time in the preseason. The Rockets have won all of the matchups so far in the season and, hopefully, will do so again tonight.

James Harden breaking records?

Last night, James Harden tied Kobe Bryant with the most consecutive 30-point games in NBA history (since the NBA-ABA merger) with 16. The Beard will look to break that record tonight against the Grizzlies, but, unfortunately, the true record is not very realistic to this day and age.

In 1961-62, Wilt Chamberlain averaged a ludicrous 50.4 points a game in a very different NBA. In that season, he had just 2 of his 80 games played where he did not reach 30 points. Sorry Harden, but that’s just unattainable. Wilt had a ridiculous 65-straight games with 30 or more during that season. Harden’s been absolutely insane this season, but that level of dominance just doesn’t happen in the modern NBA.

The merger record is no consolation, though. It represents the record for a time period that is much more competitive with an all-around better product on the court. James Harden is among the best all time and he can etch his way into the official record books even further tonight if he gets to 30.