James Harden is still on a historic scoring tear, Chris Paul is back from injury and the Houston Rockets appear to be rounding into form. Western Conference beware. Harden poured in 40 points Sunday night to extend his streak of 30-point games to 23 and Paul returned from a strained left hamstring to lead the Rockets to a 103-98 win over the Orlando Magic. Houston moved a season-high nine games over .500 at 29-20 with its third consecutive win. Paul had 12 points and six assists in 25 minutes after missing 17 games. Coach Mike D'Antoni indicated he would like to keep Paul's minutes in the "mid-20s" as the point guard works his way back into the lineup. Paul's postseason ended early last year due to a hamstring injury in the Western Conference finals. While his workload was in line with the minutes limit, Paul's presence provided a boost to a Rockets team still without Clint Capela. The starting center had surgery to repair ligament damage in his right thumb earlier this month and is expected to be sidelined until after the All-Star break. "He looked good," Harden said of Paul. "He looked like he had an extra pep in his step. He looked great and he made some big-time shots. It was good to see him back on the court." The Rockets have weathered the injuries thanks largely to Harden's incredible scoring streak. The reigning MVP's run of 30-point games is the fourth-longest in league history, trailing only three such streaks by Wilt Chamberlain in the early 1960s. The Hall of Fame center holds the all-time record with 65 consecutive games of at least 30 points during the 1961-62 season. Harden is averaging 42.7 points during his streak, and the Rockets are 17-6. They've surged up the standings from 14th in the tightly-packed Western Conference to fifth. "James is going to be James," said Paul. "I don't care who's on the court — me, anybody — he's going to be him. We need him to be him. That's why he's the MVP." Houston has also gotten critical contributions from Austin Rivers, signed in late December after Paul was injured, and Kenneth Faried, brought in last week following Capela's surgery. Rivers is averaging 10.9 points in 36.4 minutes a game since making his Rockets debut on Christmas Day. Faried was signed on Jan. 21 after being waived by the Brooklyn Nets. In four games with the Rockets, he's averaging 14.3 points and 9.5 rebounds — with double-doubles in the last two games — while playing serviceable defense in the middle. The Rockets won't repeat last season's franchise-record 65 wins. They likely won't challenge for the top seed in the conference. However, their early-season struggles are long behind them. With Harden again playing like an MVP and key pieces getting healthy, Houston appears ready to re-assert itself as a top contender in the rugged West. Follow Matt Eppers on Twitter @meppers_.<doc-sep>James Harden is a one-man show. Part gifted offensive player, part performance art, part lightning rod, Harden is drumming up offensive production the league hasn’t seen since Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan scored in prodigious amounts. Harden’s offensive genius was on display Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden when he scored a career-high 61 points, which tied Bryant for most points by a visiting player at the Garden. He now has scored at least 30 points in 21 consecutive games, averaging 41.3 points, 8.4 assists and 7.9 rebounds while shooting 43.7 percent from the field and 37.5 percent on three-pointers during that stretch. He’s also attempting 14.6 free throws per game and making 13. But that doesn’t begin to tell the full story. Harden’s offensive outburst has coincided with Houston’s rise in the standings. On Dec. 9, the Rockets were 11-14 and in 14th place in the Western Conference. Granted, teams were bunched closely in the standings, but Houston did not look like the team that pushed Golden State to seven games in last season’s conference finals. Since then, the Rockets are 16-6 and Harden is putting together a season that has made him the MVP favorite. And while he has teammates and is not playing 1-on-5, this is about as close to a one-man show found in the NBA. Harden has made 463 buckets this season and just 53 have been assisted, according to nba.com/stats. For comparison, Golden State’s Steph Curry has made 350 shots with 201 assisted and teammate Kevin Durant has made 455 shots and 204 have been assisted. Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James, who loves to have the ball, might be the closest to Harden with just 104 assisted buckets on 340 makes. But Houston’s offense is simple. Give the ball to Harden and let him create. In his past five games, he has scored 261 points – 57 vs. Memphis, 58 vs. Brooklyn, 48 vs. the Lakers, 37 vs. Philadelphia and 61 vs. the Knicks. That’s 76 made baskets and every single one was unassisted. It seems impossible to make that many shots without at least one teammate setting up the bucket with a pass. It shows how unstoppable he is. Everyone knows what he's going to do, and he still does it. There are so many ways to highlight Harden’s offensive production. He has five 50-point games this season, the most since Bryant had 10 in 2006-07. And Harden is the first player in NBA history to record four 50-point triple-doubles. MARTIN: Pelicans can only blame themselves ZILLGITT: What NFL could learn from NBA officiating His 21-game streak with 30 points or more is the fifth-longest in NBA history and the longest by a player other than Wilt Chamberlain. Harden is on pace to join Jordan as the only players in NBA history to average at least 35 points, eight assists, five rebounds and two steals in a season. Harden’s shot profile is a lesson in efficiency. Of his 1,052 attempts, 583 are three pointers and 297 are inside the restricted area at the rim. So, 84 percent of his shots are either three-pointers or layups. Then, mix in the other efficient shot: the free throw. He shoots a league-high 11.9 and makes a league-high 10.3 per game. In a 43-point performance against Memphis, Harden had just eight made field goals. But he made six threes and 21 free throws. It’s the antithesis of Houston coach Mike D’Antoni’s offensive philosophy, but D’Antoni gets credit for recognizing how effective Harden can be playing isolation basketball and making it work. Besides all his scoring, Harden is tied for third in assists per game at 8.3 It’s a one-man show that isn’t always palatable to the purists and to some coaches and executives around the league. The ball-dominant Harden gets the ball at the top of the key and just tries to beat his man one-on-one off the dribble. His critics complain that he gets away with too much traveling and pushoffs with his forearm, that he creates the contact as he barrels into the lane like a bowling ball trying to knock over 10 pins. His critics also say he manipulates the game and bends or breaks rules to his favor – even saying he tricks officials. He is the best in drawing fouls, including getting players to foul him on three-pointers. Teams are so worried about getting called for a foul that some defenders have (perhaps facetiously?) guarded Harden with their hands behind their back. One team employee told USA TODAY Sports that Harden has figured out how to game the game. The person, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about Harden, doesn’t blame the Rockets guard. And others give Harden credit for maximizing what he does better than anyone in the league. Rockets general manager Daryl Morey claps back, saying a player can't gimmick his way to 35 points. Whether you like his style or not, Harden has mastered the offensive side of the game. Follow Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt<doc-sep>Houston Rockets guard James Harden is the obvious front runner for 2019 MVP if you’ve been watching the NBA this season, but his unbelievable performance goes beyond perceived contention for that accolade. Even this early in the year, it’s really not a race. It’s Harden vs. the field, and Harden is going to win. Just to put what Harden is doing in proper context, we’ve compiled a short list of almost unbelievable statistics that show just how incredible he has been. His 30-point streak (now at 23 straight games) is fascinating and well-documented, but have a look at these lesser-known numbers. Harden leads all scorers with 36.3 points per game. There are 33 games remaining on the Rockets’ schedule. If Harden participated and went scoreless in all of those games, he would still average 21.2 points for the season. Presently, that would place him in a three-way tie with Tobias Harris of the Los Angeles Clippers and Jrue Holiday of the New Orleans Pelicans for 22nd-highest average in the league. Bonus statistic: After Harden, the player with the next-highest points per game average is Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (29.3). If Harden started scoring 0 points per game, it would take Curry 11 games to catch up.<doc-sep>
James Harden is simply unreal. As the Houston Rockets defeated the Memphis Grizzlies, 112-94, on Monday night, the reigning NBA MVP scored 57 points while shooting 17-of-33 from the field and 17-of-18 on his free throws. Heck, that's not even mentioning that he scored a franchise-record 36 points in the first half alone. However, the 57 points during the game and the 36 points at halftime weren't the biggest stories -- the biggest story was the fact that Harden scored 30 or more points for the 17th straight game, breaking Kobe Bryant's record since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976. As hard as it may be to believe, the Rockets are playing better in the absence of Chris Paul. Paul has been sidelined with a hamstring injury since a Dec. 20 game versus the Miami Heat, and Harden has completely carried this team on his back since. During Paul's absence, the Rockets have gone 9-3 and have climbed from being outside the playoff race to having the fifth-best record in the Western Conference. During that 12-game stretch, Harden has averaged a ridiculous 41.9 points per game. Not only has he scored more than 30 points in every game, but he has also scored over 40 points in eight of those 12 games. For those wondering, the all-time NBA record for consecutive 30-plus point games was set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1963-64 with 20, according to ESPN. With Paul not due back until the end of January, the Rockets will have to continue to ride Harden's scoring momentum for another couple of weeks. Considering the way that he has played over the past month, do we have any reason to think he's going to slow down any time soon?