Chloe Kim: Kid from California heads to games

Snowboarder, 17, has a good chance to medal in country of her relatives.

Ask snowboarder Chloe Kim what she thinks the “Chloe Kim Story” really is this year and she hesitates just a moment, before deciding on “The California girl that went to the Olympics.”

It’s perfect, easy, and oh-so-fitting for the 17-year-old from Torrance, Calif., who loves music and the mall almost as much as she loves stomping her runs — and the competition — in the halfpipe.

But Kim, whether it’s fair or not, has come to represent more than that for these Olympics.

Her parents are from South Korea, where the games will be held starting Feb. 9. Among the handful of relatives who live there is Chloe’s grandma, who has been known to brag about her high-flying granddaughter if, say, she’s out to tea with her friends and a picture of Chloe happens to appear in the 113-102 victory nix assists

the The Rockets (35-13) beat the Suns for the 14th time in their past 16 meetings, including seven straight. But after struggling to find a flow, making just 11 of 37 3-pointers (29.7 percent) and committing 12 turnovers, the Rockets knew something was off.

just didn’t play well, spirit-wise, energy-wise,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Hopefully, we’ll learnalittle bit from it, but these are the dog days right now, and they’ve got to find within themselves to be able to concentrate for 48 minutes and get W’s.”

Rockets guard Gerald Green said D’Antoni kept reminding players throughout the game that they were playing with fire against the Suns, who fell to 17-33.

“Luckily, we didn’t get burned,” Green said. “We can’t do those things if we want to be a good team.”