Rockets guard against letdown with seven-game winning streak

The Rockets will go from games against three-consecutive contenders – the Celtics, Raptors and 76ers – to a back-to-back against teams with losing records, the Mavericks and Hornets, that they defeated in their most recent meeting before facing the Warriors on Wednesday. That would seem to create a potential for a letdown, but they said they have goals that should prevent that.

“To be ready every game is always a challenge, there’s so many games,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “But … there’s so much at stake, we talk about it and throw it out there. Most of the time, they’ll be fine. Every once in a while, we’ll mess up. That’s human nature. We’ll try to guard against it. But we do know…