Johnson on Houston's streak

The Rockets are gunning for their 22nd – yes, 22nd! – straight win right now against the Lakers. The winner takes over the top spot in the Western Conference.

It’s already the second-longest winning streak in NBA history. Avery Johnson, though, isn’t that surprised.

“It’s not necessarily surprising,” he said. “Sometimes teams get a certain confidence and they get hot. Sometimes there’s more pressure on their opponents that’s playing against them to ‘end the streak.’ So I think more than anything, even though they’re winning a lot, the teams that are playing against them seem to have more pressure.

“And as we found out in our league, sometimes the teams that have more pressure on them don’t play as well. The team that can play loose and it’s ‘us against the world’ and ‘we’re the underdogs’ – they’re playing without Yao and they’re playing relaxed. Hey, they’re just playing like they have nothing to lose and a lot of it is going their way.”

Johnson’s team is looking to extend its streak to five.

“I’d like to get really hot in the last two weeks of the season, to tell you the truth,” he said.