As routs go, the Rockets handling of the Magic might not have been pretty, but it was said to have a good personality.
When the Rockets style came through, they were really quite attractive. They had a long stretch of drive-and-kick 3s that sent the game toward a rout. James Harden had his second-consecutive stellar defensive performance, while rolling easily offensively.
Dwight Howard celebrated his 28th birthday by hitting his former team with his first 20-20 game since he left Orlando.
The 22-point lead the Rockets took into the fourth quarter was reduced to 10. That, however, was enough for Howard and Harden to take over again, until the longer the Rockets checked out their 98-85 win against the Magic on Sunday, the better it looked.