The Houston Rockets take on Minnesota as they look to win 9 straight

The Houston Rockets will look to continue their stellar play against the Timberwolves as they attempt to win their ninth consecutive game.

The Houston Rockets strung together 14 wins in a row between Nov. 16 and Dec. 18. We knew that they would lose eventually, but they looked nearly unbeatable at the time. Well, the Rockets are doing it again.

Despite missing Trevor Ariza, the Rockets have looked like the best team in the league over the last few weeks. Houston has won eight games in a row, which is the second longest winning streak in the NBA behind Utah’s 10-game winning streak.

Yesterday, the NBA announced that James Harden won the Western Conference Player of the Week award for the second consecutive week. The Beard led Houston to a 4-0 record and he averaged 33.0 points and 6.8 assists last week.

This will be Houston’s second game against the Wolves this season and they’ll play Minnesota again on Feb. 23. The Rockets took the first matchup in Houston 116-98 behind a game-high 30 points from Eric Gordon.

Minnesota shot well from the field in that game and they also kept their turnovers low, but they were outscored by 27 points from the 3-point line. The Wolves average just 8.0 made 3’s per game, which is second to last in the league.

The Rockets want to go into the All-Star break on a winning streak

Mike D’Antoni realizes the importance of going into the All-Star break on a roll, via Fox Sports (H/T Houston Chronicle).

“These are two games we’re going to try like heck to win. We also know that the game up in Minnesota is really a tough one and then we have a back-to-back. It’s something we want to do, something we’re really going to try to do, but it’s not going to wreck the season if we don’t do it. We’d just pick up the pieces and keep on going if we don’t do it. We’ll keep everything in perspective.”

After the game in Minnesota tonight, the Rockets will travel back to Houston for a matchup with the Kings tomorrow night. If they can win both games, they’ll head into the All-Star break on a 10-game winning streak.

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Houston’s first game after All-Star Weekend is against Minnesota, so it is very important that the Rockets don’t fall apart in their last two games.