Rockets start fast, beat Clips for 14th straight

LOS ANGELES — The Houston Rockets really didn't need an exclamation point to their dominating first quarter Wednesday night. 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 first 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 didn't know.

“I was looking at him and he was looking at me,” Harden said. “I was thinking,W` hat are you doing?' I was going to shoot it, but I was waiting to figure out what was going on. I was confused. And then I shot it.”

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

“I'm thinkingT, `his is not a good matchup,“’ Clippers coach Doc Rivers said.

“You could see it early. We were just dead. That's the slowest game that we've played in eight weeks. I tried every lineup but it just wasn't there. You could see it on their faces, but there was nothing you could do about it.”

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 halfgame ahead of Golden State for the NBA's best record.

“We just feel like we can win every game right now,” said Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni.

Tobias Harris led the Clippers with 24 points.