BOSTON - The Houston Rockets expressed relief on Tuesday night after their 94-74 loss to the Boston Celtics snapped their 22-game winning streak. In fact, in the locker room after the game, the atmosphere was anything but bleak despite the loss breaking the second-longest winning streak in NBA history.
"I don't think anyone can understand just how much pressure having a run of wins like this is," said Rockets star Tracy McGrady in the locker room after the game. "I think we're all glad to have the circus surrounding us over with, so we can go back to doing what is natural for us - being a mediocre basketball team."
Rockets head coach Rick Adelman said that the winning streak, which carried the Rockets from outside of the Western Conference playoff race to the top spot in the Conference, was a potential distraction for the playoffs.
"Honestly, it's like having a big weight taken off of our shoulders," Alston said. "Not sucking places a burden on you - people start expecting to you to actual perform night after night. For a team that's used to going .500 and continually underperforming, this kind of success can really mess with their pschye. It's like asking Sisyphus to start rolling the boulder downhill - how do you expect him to control it?"
Adelman added that he felt confident that the team would not let the recent winning streak impact their goals for the season, and that they were still "on-course" for their original plan to lose a first-round series in five games.
