HARDEN KEEPS

Los Angeles, Feb. 12: James Harden produced a scintillating late burst of scoring to extend his remarkable 30- point scoring streak to 30 games on Monday as the Houston Rockets defeated the Dallas Mavericks 120- 104.

The reigning NBA MVP had been bidding to become only the second player in history after Wilt Chamberlain to score at least 30 points in 30 consecutive games as the Rockets hosted the Mavs. But Harden’s run of 30- point games looked to be in serious jeopardy after a dogged performance by the Mavericks, who often doubleteamed the Rockets ace in an attempt to staunch his scoring ability.

With around three minutes remaining, Harden looked to be in trouble with only 20 points against his name. However back- toback three pointers took him to 26 points with 1: 57 on the clock, and he moved to 28 points after two free throws with just over a minute remaining.

With the Toyota Center home crowd roaring him on, Harden broke the 30point barrier with a threepointer to finish with 31 points on the night. Harden is now one game shy of Chamberlain’s tally of 31 consecutive 30- point games for second place on the all- time list. Chamberlain also holds the outright record with a streak of 65 30- point games.

Harden later spoke of his satisfaction to have joined Chamberlain as the only player to have reached 30 30- point games.

“That’s one of the greatest ever to touch a basketball,”

Harden said. “It’s an honour to be in that conversation. Obviously I have a long way to go but it’s a start. Just trying to keep it going.”

Harden’s main satisfaction however was in helping secure victory for Houston, who moved to 3323 with the win to stay firmly in the playoff hunt

in the Western Conference. “They’re a really good team, especially offensively,” Harden said of Dallas.

“They can get it going. They’ve got a number of guys that can shoot the ball well. We just had to keep our composure and make some big shots.”

Gerald Green had 19 points off the bench for the