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Harden, Westbrook fire Rockets
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James Harden has been scoring at such a prolific rate this season that his 36-point effort in Houston鈥檚 rout of Portland on Monday night actually caused his average to dip.
鈥淔or him he had a subpar night,鈥 Portland coach Terry Stotts said with a slight laugh.
Russell Westbrook added 28 points and a triple-double to help the Rockets to their eighth straight win, 132-108.
Harden, who has scored at least 30 points in eight straight games, had 6 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal. He leads the National Basketball Association by averaging a career-high 39.2 points this season. The second-highest scorer in the league is Milwaukee鈥檚 Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is well behind Harden at 30.3 points a game.
鈥淚 think that a lot of people like to normalize greatness when you see it over and over again,鈥 Westbrook said. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 not normal because there鈥檚 no one else that can do it. If it was normal everybody would do it. He鈥檚 put himself in a position to be one of the best scorers of all time.鈥
Westbrook had 13 rebounds and 10 assists for his third triple-double of the season and the 141st of his career after sitting out to rest in Houston鈥檚 last game on Saturday night.
Coach Mike D鈥橝ntoni loved the way Harden and Westbrook worked together at Toyota Center on Monday night.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got a dose of (Westbrook鈥檚) athleticism coming at you and they鈥檝e got to get back and get a wall and then ... it didn鈥檛 quite go and get it back to James and just let him do what James does,鈥 D鈥橝ntoni said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a pretty good 1-2 punch, that鈥檚 for sure.鈥
The surging Rockets led by double digits for most of this one on a night they got starters Clint Capela and Danuel House back on court after both players had missed time with injuries.
Houston was up by 18 with about five minutes left when Harden made a 3-pointer to make it 120-99. Westbrook collected his 10th assist when Harden made a layup with about 3 1/2 minutes left for Houston鈥檚 next points and the pair along with PJ Tucker headed to the bench for good after that.
CJ McCollum led the Trail Blazers with 25 points in a game where Damian Lillard shot just 4 of 15 and had 13 points.
Stotts was unhappy that his team had more rebounds overall than Houston but had just 12 offensive rebounds to 17 by the Rockets.
鈥淭he thing that was probably the most disappointing was their offensive rebounding and how they converted their offensive rebounding into points,鈥 the Portland coach said. 鈥淚 thought that was the difference in the first half.鈥
Houston led by 23 points entering the fourth quarter after scoring 35 points in a big third quarter. The Trail Blazers cut it to 102-85 with about 9 minutes to go but Westbrook had the next three points to pad the lead.
The Trail Blazers cut the lead to 11 with a 3-pointer by McCollum with about 8 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter. The Rockets then used a 19-6 run to make it 94-70 with about 2 1/2 minutes left in the period. Harden had 6 points in that stretch and Tucker made a 3-pointer and added 5 points.
Elsewhere, it was: Mavericks 117, Spurs 110; Clippers 90, Thunder 88; Celtics 99, Suns 85; Bucks 115, Bulls 101; Timberwolves 112, Jazz 102; Raptors 132, Hornets 96; Knicks 123, Cavaliers 105; and Pacers 115, Nets 86.
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