Orlando Magic – Houston Rockets · NBA

Win probability changed during the game. · 3 December 2021

ORL116–118HOU

Is it worth watching?

Highly recommended

It was more exciting than 84% of NBA games since 2017

· It stayed close for almost the whole game

It measures how much the win probability moved during the game —without looking at who won or at the score— and compares it with the 10,950 NBA games with a curve since 2017. “Highly recommended” is the most intense 20%, “recommended” runs from 50% to 80%, and “skippable” is the rest. Source: ESPN.

↑ HOU winsORL wins ↓

Home team's win probability across the game (source: ESPN). The band rises when HOU leads and falls when ORL does.

This is how the game was decided.

Eric Gordon decided it, the Houston Rockets player with the most points (24, with 2 rebounds and 3 assists; -7 with him on the floor); the winner's best plus-minus was KJ Martin's (+9). The criterion: the winner's points in the box score; plus-minus says who was on the floor when the game opened up.

The game-winner in Houston Rockets 118-116 Orlando Magic (December 3, 2021) was hit by Eric Gordon: a jump shot with 1.6 s left in the fourth quarter, putting the Houston Rockets up 118-116. They never trailed again.

The biggest run of Houston Rockets 118-116 Orlando Magic (December 3, 2021) was a 13-0 run by the Orlando Magic in the fourth quarter (from 3:55 to 47.0 s), from 101-114 to 114-114. The Houston Rockets' best was a 9-0 run in the first quarter (from 8:40 to 7:07), from 6-10 to 15-10.

▸See where these figures come from

Play: Eric Gordon makes 5-foot driving floating jump shot (Jae'Sean Tate assists).

I count as the game-winner the basket that puts the winning team ahead for good. Source: the official NBA play-by-play (since 2002-03) and each team's official box scores.

A run here is consecutive points by one team without the opponent scoring. Source: the official NBA play-by-play (since 2002-03) and each team's official box scores.

Source: the game's official box score and play-by-play.

Eric Gordon decided this game: his points put his team ahead with 1.6 seconds left in the fourth quarter, and the opponent never led again.

It is one of the 4 games he has decided this way in the NBA since the 2002-03 season.

His profile shows the games Gordon decided

▸See where these figures come from

A game is decided by the last basket that puts a team ahead in the final ten seconds of the fourth quarter or of an overtime, if that team wins.

3 December 2021 · The source is the ESPN play-by-play, play espn:401360161:649; the date is the one on the NBA box score.

Rotations · who was on the floor

Closing lineup · ORL

Anthony · Wagner · Carter · Harris · Ross

Closing lineup · HOU

Wood · Mathews · Gordon · Tate · House

Q1Q2Q3Q4

ORL

Cole Anthony

36′ · +3

Franz Wagner

33′ · -1

Wendell Carter Jr.

33′ · +8

Mo Bamba

31′ · +11

Gary Harris

31′ · +18

Chuma Okeke

19′ · -13

Terrence Ross

22′ · -13

Moritz Wagner

13′ · -10

R.J. Hampton

15′ · -7

Mychal Mulder

6′ · -6

HOU

Christian Wood

34′ · -4

Garrison Mathews

32′ · -6

Eric Gordon

32′ · -7

Jae'Sean Tate

32′ · -1

Kevin Porter Jr.

18′ · -1

Danuel House Jr.

20′ · +4

Armoni Brooks

19′ · +1

KJ Martin

14′ · +9

Alperen Sengun

19′ · +4

D.J. Augustin

12′ · +5

Josh Christopher

6′ · +6

Each bar is a stint on the floor (source: NBA). The number is minutes played and the team's +/− with him on the court. ORL and HOU.

These lineups played the most minutes together.

Orlando Magic

Bamba, Carter, Anthony, Wagner, and Harris played 19.9 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 17 points.
Mulder, Wagner, Okeke, Hampton, and Ross played 5.7 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 8 points.
Bamba, Carter, Anthony, Wagner, and Ross played 3.8 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 9 points.

Houston Rockets

Wood, Brooks, Mathews, Tate, and Gordon played 7.2 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 1 point.
Wood, Porter, Mathews, Tate, and Gordon played 6.9 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 4 points.
Wood, Mathews, Tate, Sengun, and Gordon played 4.8 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 2 points.

▸See every lineup of the game

Orlando Magic

Bamba, Carter, Anthony, Hampton, and Harris played 3.5 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 2 points.
Wagner, Okeke, Anthony, Ross, and Harris played 3.2 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 9 points.
Carter, Okeke, Anthony, Wagner, and Harris played 2.4 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 3 points.
Wagner, Okeke, Anthony, Wagner, and Ross played 2.1 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 6 points.
Bamba, Okeke, Hampton, Wagner, and Ross played 1.8 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.
Wagner, Okeke, Hampton, Wagner, and Ross played 1.7 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 4 points.
Bamba, Carter, Hampton, Wagner, and Ross played 1.2 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 5 points.

Houston Rockets

Wood, Porter, Brooks, Mathews, and Tate played 3.9 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.
House, Martin, Christopher, Sengun, and Augustin played 3.9 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 1 point.
Wood, House, Martin, Christopher, and Augustin played 2.5 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 5 points.
Wood, House, Brooks, Tate, and Gordon played 2.4 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 1 point.
Porter, Mathews, Tate, Sengun, and Gordon played 2.4 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 2 points.
Mathews, Martin, Sengun, Gordon, and Augustin played 2.3 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 5 points.
Wood, House, Porter, Brooks, and Martin played 2.3 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 4 points.
Wood, House, Mathews, Tate, and Gordon played 1.9 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 2 points.
House, Martin, Sengun, Gordon, and Augustin played 1.8 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.
House, Mathews, Tate, Sengun, and Gordon played 1.5 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 4 points.
House, Brooks, Martin, Sengun, and Augustin played 1.5 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 4 points.
Wood, House, Porter, Mathews, and Gordon played 1.4 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 6 points.
Wood, House, Porter, Brooks, and Tate played 1.1 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 5 points.

▸See where these figures come from

The lineups come from the NBA's official rotation: who was on the floor and when. Each lineup's plus-minus is worked out from every player's stints and is only shown when they all add up with each other and with the final score.

Cole Anthony covered 4.44 km, more than anyone in the game.

Cole Anthony touched the ball 84 times, a game high.
Cole Anthony made 55 passes, a game high.
Mo Bamba defended 8 shots at the rim, a game high, and opponents made 3.
Christian Wood had 23 rebound chances, a game high.

▸See what was measured for each player

Orlando Magic

Player	km	km/h	Touches	Passes
Cole Anthony	4.44	6.8	84	55
Franz Wagner	4.18	6.9	51	32
Gary Harris	3.86	7.0	35	24
Wendell Carter Jr.	3.64	6.1	52	40
Mo Bamba	3.59	6.5	45	36
Terrence Ross	2.74	7.0	49	31
Chuma Okeke	2.30	6.9	25	15
R.J. Hampton	1.87	6.9	31	21
Moritz Wagner	1.50	6.4	20	15
Mychal Mulder	0.71	6.3	4	3

Houston Rockets

Player	km	km/h	Touches	Passes
Garrison Mathews	4.36	6.9	31	15
Christian Wood	3.70	6.0	61	39
Jae'Sean Tate	3.57	6.2	61	42
Eric Gordon	3.54	6.1	56	35
Danuel House Jr.	2.51	6.8	39

The figures come from the NBA's optical tracking (NBA.com) for this game; speed is each player's average while on the floor.

Who stood out on defense during the season

These figures cover the whole 2021-22 regular season, not this game.

Orlando Magic

Moritz Wagner drew 0.23 charges per game over his 61 games.
He ranks 12 of 386 in the league.
Wendell Carter Jr. defended 5.3 shots at the rim per game over his 62 games, and opponents made 11 fewer out of every 100 than usual.
He ranks 5 of 131 in the league.
Mo Bamba contested 9.5 shots per game over his 70 games.
He ranks 20 of 386 in the league.

Houston Rockets

Garrison Mathews drew 0.38 charges per game over his 65 games.
He ranks 3 of 386 in the league.
Jae'Sean Tate drew 0.23 charges per game over his 78 games.
He ranks 12 of 386 in the league.
Christian Wood contested 10.5 shots per game over his 68 games.
He ranks 13 of 386 in the league.

Hustle figures come from the hustle stats the NBA publishes (NBA.com) and rim defense comes from its tracking; both cover the regular season. For each player in this game we show the figure that ranks him highest in the league, and for each team, the three best ranked. Ranks count players with at least 30 games and, at the rim, at least 4 defended shots per game.

The Houston Rockets have won 47 of their 79 games against the Orlando Magic.

47-32record of the Houston Rockets · NBA 1989-90 – 2025-26, regular season and playoffs

2-0in 2025-26

See the full head-to-head in the Analyst

See where it comes from

Official NBA box scores, regular season and playoffs, 1989-90 – 2025-26. It counts every game between the two teams that the house holds, this one included.

SportiveWorld knows much more about this game

Game context

Attendance

13.697

75.9% of capacity

Toyota Center · Houston

Scoring

234

combined points

12.8 above the season average (221.2)

⚖️ The last two minutes

Official NBA L2M report: every call in the endgame, reviewed by the league.

16 calls reviewed2 errors admitted by the NBA

Stoppage: Out-of-Bounds · 00:57.2

Wendell Carter Jr. → Christian Wood

Carter Jr. (ORL) blocks the shot attempt but Wood (HOU) is the last player to touch the ball before it goes out of bounds and it should be Magic possession.

Turnover: Lost Ball Out of Bounds · 01:38.0

Garrison Mathews → Magic

Mathews (HOU) is out of bounds when he makes contact with the loose ball and it should be Magic possession.