Second straight triple-double chills Charlotte
Forget slowing James Harden.
Right now, his opponents can’t even put his play into words.
Harden had 40 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists for his second straight tripledouble as the Houston Rockets outlasted the Charlotte Hornets 121-114 on Tuesday night for their ninth straight win.
“There’s not enough good words in the English dictionary that can describe what he’s been doing,” Charlotte’s Marvin Williams said. “He’s literally making history.”
Harden has five triple-doubles in the past seven games and is averaging 32.4 points, 11.4 assists and 9.9 rebounds during the winning streak.
He got his 11th triple-double this season and 20th in his career. Tuesday’s performance came after he had 40 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds in a win over Toronto on Sunday to make him the fourth player in NBA history with at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in consecutive games.
Pete Maravich, Michael Jordan and Russell Westbrook are the three. down
“As long as I play the right way and be unselfish and we win games, all that is going to come,” Harden said.
“I don’t think about it too much. If it happens, it happens. The most important thing is winning and it’s been a total turnaround from last year to this year.”
The Rockets missed 10 straight shots and let an 18-point lead evaporate before coach Mike D’Antoni called a timeout with 2:26 left
Ryan Anderson made Houston’s first shot in more than four minutes with a 3-pointer out of the timeout. After a block on the other end, Harden’s layup put Houston up 115-111 with just over a minute to play.
Kemba Walker cut the defi-