At 62-15, the Houston Rockets have been the best team in the NBA all season long.As a result, Mike D’Antoni is certainly a candidate to win his second-straight Coach of the Year award.With his patented perimeter-centric offensive style, D’Antoni and his team have been able to take the league by storm and have consistently produced. They’ve done so on the back of James Harden while featuring a tight rotation for most of the year.On Sunday, Chris Paul (left leg) and Nene Hilario (lower back) sat out while the San Antonio Spurs manhandled the Rockets by the score of 100-83. Uncharacteristically, Houston came out flat, scoring just 17 points in the first quarter, and also ended the game in the same stale way, posting 17 fourth-quarter points.As a result, they snapped an 11-game winning streak and continued their recent stretch of less-than-stellar performances (even though they previously found success in the win column)."We just didn't bring it. We just weren't sharp," D'Antoni told reporters after the game, per the Associated Press. "We haven't been sharp now for about three or four games. It hasn't just been one or two days. That's scary when you rest guys.”It’s obvious that D’Antoni isn’t a fan of giving his players a day off, even if they already clinched a playoff berth.

"That's why at the end of the year, you've got to be careful taking guys out and just resting them. Everybody wants rest, rest, rest. Well, they've got to play. Otherwise, we're going to lose the advantage of what you worked for for 80 games, and it's scary times for us. You've got to play. You've got to bring it, and you've got to bring it every day. We'll get it back,” the coach promised.

Even though the majority of the team’s players haven’t sat out due to rest, it’s been obvious that the Rockets haven’t played with the same vigor and tenacity over the last few games.

A couple Rockets players made it clear that they need to regain the fire.

"We've coasted these last few games," said Harden, who has surprisingly struggled shooting the ball over the last five games. "It's time to amp it up a little bit. Just get our minds and our bodies right and get ready to go."

“We definitely don't want to go into the playoffs playing the way that we've been playing these past few games. ... Just stay greedy. We are competitors,” veteran Trevor Ariza explained. “That's what we do. We have to remember that. We have to continue to play hard and continue to build our habits.”

Overall, D’Antoni knows that they’ll need to get their act together before the playoffs begin.

"Being rested and playing bad is not going to be a good formula going into the playoffs," he said. "That's not good. They have enough rest. How it became vogue just not to play, I don't know.”

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