14-game winning streaks the new normal
Dominant first quarter takes suspense out of hyped rematch in L.A.
LOS ANGELES — Of all the memes spawned by the Rockets’ infamous previous visit to Los Angeles to face the Clippers, from images of them crawling through hidden passageways “Die Hard” style to assorted cartoons of comic sneak attacks, James Harden lit up the internet again Wednesday night.
This time, he went through the front door, in plain sight, with the image of the statement he could not make in January while sitting through the final game of his injury.
Harden hit Wesley Johnson with a pair of rapidfire crossover dribbles, then a quick move to the lane that sent Johnson sprawling to the lane. With Johnson helpless on the floor, Harden stood over him, and stood and stood, waiting long enough for a chalk outline of Johnson’s body to be drawn in the lane, before finally putting in his jumper to vividly illustrate the Rockets’ early dominance and command they never relinquished on the way past the Clippers 105-92.
The win completed a threegame sweep of teams — the Nuggets, Jazz and Clippers — that could be first-round opponents. The Rockets said it was too early to look at it that way, insisting that their interest was only in the quality of their own play.
Though they let up greatly and needed strong finishes to get wins in the other games of the trip, the Rockets could not com-
plain, pushing their winning streak to 14 games to become just the sixth team in NBA history with multiple winning streaks of at least 14 games in the same season. It also gave them a sweep of February, just their third unbeaten month in franchise history. Most of all, it left the memory of the loss to the Clippers far behind, with the Rockets 18-1 since that night.
After losing the first two meetings with the Clippers, including the loss in Los Angeles that became notorious for the hot tempers during the game and the suspensions that followed when Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green found their way into the Clippers’ locker room, the Rockets pounded the Clippers through the first quarter to take control of the game,
While Harden scored easily, getting 17 points in the quarter, the Clippers needed a late push to reach 12 points, matching the fewest the Rockets have given up in a quarter this season. The Clippers had more turnovers (seven) than field goals (5-of-22) in the quarter as the Rockets took their lead to as many as 25 points.
The Rockets scored so easily and led by so much that they eased up considerably defensively, struggling to find the edge they brought to the start of the game. With former Rockets center Montrezl Harrell making eight consecutive shots, the Clippers made 61 percent of their shots in the second and third quarters after making 22.7 percent in the first.
When Milos Teodosic opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer, a Rockets lead that reached 27 was down to eight.
That got the Rockets’ attention.
Luc Mbah a Moute finished a drive. Chris Paul put in a jumper. Joe Johnson hit a 3-pointer, taking the lead back to 15 points. With Clint Capela putting together one of his more complete games of the season, finishing with 22 points and 14 rebounds and a slam on three Clippers nearly as meme worthy as Harden’s move, the Rockets took their lead to 18 by the time the benches were cleared with 2½ minutes left.
By then, the defense that had slipped so badly picked up again. Harden had just three points in the second half, finishing with 25. Paul scored just eight points. Though Eric Gordon picked up much of that slack, scoring 22 points in his first game back from food poisoning, the Rockets finished off the win by holding the Clippers to just 20 fourth-quarter points, the last seven while fans were rushing to the exits.
With that, the Rockets, who had held opponents to 102.7 points since the start of the new year, move to 22-2 when holding teams shy of 100 points.