No words to describe what Harden’s doing

cit to one with a 3-pointer, but another layup by Harden made it 117-114 with 28.6 seconds remaining. Charlotte missed three 3-point tries in the dying seconds.

Walker had 25 points for the Hornets, who dropped their third straight.

“It’s going to come down to the basic principles and those are things that until this year we were really good at,” Hornets coach Steve Clifford said.

“If we want to win, we’ ll get back to that sooner rather than later.”

Houston led by 18 after a 3-pointer by Corey Brewer with about eight minutes remaining.

A 21-2 run by the Hornets followed and put them ahead 111-110 with just over two minutes left. Frank Kaminsky got that run going by scoring the first five points and made two 3s later in that stretch, including the one that put Charlotte on top.

Meanwhile, Rockets center Clint Capela is making progress in his recovery from a fractured left fibula. Capela, who was injured on Dec 17, said on Tuesday he is on schedule to return before the end of the month.

“I feel way better, because when it happened I wasn’t even able to walk and now I can run,” he said.

“So in my mind I’m really ready to go. I still have like a couple of weeks in front of me before I come back, but I’m so focused on what I’m doing and I’m really excited.”