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.