Victor Oladipo draws raves from Rockets after topping James Harden
Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets Legend Clyde Drexler praised Orlando’s Victor Oladipo during the broadcast of Orlando’s 107-94 loss to the Houston Rockets, with superlatives laced throughout the broadcast.
107. 169. 94. 38. Final
It was a night in which we would again all take notice of just how good Victor Oladipo is becoming.
Current Rockets color commentator Clyde Drexler would join the legion of analysts hopping on the Oladipo train on this evening.
Drexler said before the half that Rockets 2-guard James Harden had yet to score a field goal (with less than two minutes remaining in the first half) and that Oladipo was “up to the challenge of guarding James.”
Clyde was later awed as Victor Oladipo cut backdoor early in the fourth quarter for a dunk off a Luke Ridnour bounce pass, saying Oladipo dunked it while he was still going up and he was “super explosive.” Drexler in his prime was one of the most explosive shooting guards in NBA history, and he was taken back by the Magic’s young prospect from Indiana University.
Drexler said of the Magic’s backcourt defense that it had become the theme of the game, and the zone trapping of Harden was being done very well. At the half, Harden was just 1 of 8 from the field and had entirely been kept in check. The Rockets still led by a point, but that was largely due to Josh Smith getting it going off the bench.
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More and more, the theme of this Magic team is becoming the standout play of Oladipo.
With teams beginning to take notice of him, the league will by and large in short fashion. Every game that Oladipo contends with a player like Harden, Klay Thompson, Dwyane Wade or any of the high-scoring guards we know, we might see Oladipo out play them.
His 38-point performance against Eric Bledsoe in Phoenix on March 4 put in motion the wheels of a strong performance by the Magic that would fall just short, dropping 105-100.
The next contest on March 6 hosting Sacramento, Oladipo put on an all-around show, breaking down the Kings for 32 points on 24 field goal attempts while dishing out 10 assists and coming up with five of Orlando’s 10 steals. His defensive havoc with Payton is proving to ignite a lot of Magic offense, and in the win over the Kings the Magic outscored the Kings in fast break points 19 to 3.
Payton would ultimately step up and force a James Harden miscue that nearly resulted in a turnover at about the 3-minute mark of the fourth, but Corey Brewer bailed him out with a huge three and the Rockets took a 100-92 lead that seemed safe given the Rockets staunch defense in the final period.
At that point the Rockets had outscored Orlando 23-14, but Harden was still just 3 of 12 from the floor. Harden got to the line to hit 8 of 11 and rebounded well, but the Magic kept the boards competitive and held a +2 advantage over the final three quarters of the game after having been beat 15-9 on the glass in the first period.
The Magic will have these problems against better teams: stopping Harden is not enough to beat the Rockets. Teams like Houston have talent coming off the bench that could start on Orlando’s team, like Josh Smith, Corey Brewer and Terrence Jones.
But it is encouraging to see Oladipo play a huge role defensively along with Payton in controlling the league’s MVP. The Magic seem to match up extremely well with the Rockets as noted by the Rockets’ commentating crew, and Orlando won the matchup against Houston at the Amway Center on Jan. 14, 120-113.
It is easy to envision, in due time, Oladipo will consistently challenge guys like Harden and get the better of them. He had 32 in the first meeting against Houston along with six assists and six rebounds.
In Wednesday’s contest Victor finished with 29 points with four steals, four rebounds and two assists while playing 40 minutes.
In the two games against the Rockets, Oladipo scored 61 points while limiting Harden to 43. That’s not the sole measure of a player’s worth, but for the year of 2015, the score has to be Victor 1, James 0—even if the teams split the meetings.