Rockets romp as Clippers crumble

Houston wins 14th straight to maintain top overall spot in NBA

LOS ANGELES - The Houston Rockets really didn't need an exclamation point to their dominating first quarter on Wednesday night, but James Harden provided one anyway.

The Rockets had already blown past the Clippers when Harden juked Wesley Johnson so badly, the defender stumbled and fell flat to the floor.

Harden looked down at him for a long moment before calmly drilling a 3-pointer to give Houston a 31-7 lead.

Houston's 14th consecutive victory was in hand early, and the Rockets went on to win 105-92.

Harden scored 17 of his 25 points in the opening quarter, but claimed he wasn't trying to stare down the floored Johnson.

"I was just trying to figure out what he was doing," Harden said.

"I was looking at him and he was looking at me, and I was thinking, 'What are you doing?' I was going to shoot it, but I was waiting to figure out what was going on. I was confused."

The Clippers had played the previous night in Denver, while the Rockets had the day off.

"I'm thinking, 'This is not a good matchup,'" Clippers coach Doc Rivers said.

"You could see it early. We were just dead. That's the slowest game we've played in eight weeks. I tried every lineup but it just wasn't there. You could see it on their faces."

The Clippers rallied from 19 points down to beat Denver the previous night, but could not overcome their dismal start, never getting closer than eight points.

Not against a confident Houston team that is absolutely rolling.

The Rockets (48-13) matched their longest winning streak of the season and remained a half-game ahead of Golden State for the NBA's best record.

"We feel like we can win every game right now," said Houston coach Mike D'Antoni.

Clint Capela and Eric Gordon each scored 22 points for the Rockets, who made 13 3-pointers. Capela added 14 rebounds.

Tobias Harris led the Clippers with 24 points, with Montrezl Harrell added 22. Lou Williams and Milos Teodosic each scored 13.

The Clippers missed 16 of their first 19 shots, had 11 turnovers and trailed by as many as 27 points in the first quarter.

Los Angeles shot 22.7 percent (5 of 22) for the period and trailed 34-12 at the end of the quarter.

"Offensively, we can score," Harden said. "That's not the problem. Defensively when we're able to communicate and move our bodies and help each other out, we're at another level."

Gordon returned after missing four games, one to a sore knee and the last three due to an illness.

Clippers' Danilo Gallinari missed his third consecutive game with a bruised right hand.

On any spillover of hard feelings from the chippy Jan 15 meeting with the Clippers, that saw several Rockets players try to enter the Clippers' locker room and resulted in two-game suspensions for Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green, D'Antoni said: "That doesn't play any part in it. They're all grown men."

The door in Houston's locker room that led to the back corridor used by several Rockets to enter the Clippers room after their previous meeting was taped off on Wednesday.

Associated Press