D’Antoni: Let scorers shoot

Guard James Harden matched his career high of 35 shot attempts Saturday, the seventh time this season he has put up at least 30 shots and fifth time in the past three weeks. But coach Mike D’Antoni said he has no issues with his top scorer shooting so often.

“They’re good shots,” D’Antoni said. “He’s our best shooter and all of them are good shots. That’s the beauty of the team. Whoever’s open is going to shoot. It doesn’t matter.

“Austin ( Rivers) starts off with the hand. He got the ball all kinds of times. James, that’s where his greatness is kind of overlooked. He does not care. He will get his 40 points. He’ll find a way. But in the meantime, if you’re hot, you’ll score.”

Rivers scored 17 first-half points Saturday when Harden struggled, but said while Harden will find open shooters, the Rockets rely on him to lead them.

“We have a lot of scorers, so we have to move the ball,” Rivers said. “James finds open guys. He’s an unselfish scorer. Anybody can go off. I’m a scorer. James knows that so he does a good job of finding me. We play off him. At the end of the day, we live and die with James. He’s in my mind the best player in the NBA. Offensively, nobody can stop him. So that’s what we do.”

Harden’s streak of games scoring at least 40 points ended at five games Saturday. With 38 points and seven assists, his streak of 10 games with at least 35 points and five assists is the longest in NBA history.

His run of 10 games scoring 35 points is tied with Michael Jordan for the second longest in the NBA since 1976-77, one game behind Kobe Bryant.