NEW YORK (AP) — James Harden has reached 30 points for the 21st consecutive game, passing Wilt Chamberlain for the fourth-longest streak in NBA history.Harden's 3-pointer with about three minutes remaining in the first half of Houston's game against the Knicks on Wednesday night gave him 32 points.The NBA's leading scorer had already surpassed his average of 35.7 points by halftime, putting back the miss of his own shot to beat the buzzer and give himself 36 points and nine rebounds.Chamberlain still has all three streaks that were longer. His record is 65 straight 30-point games, and he also had streaks of 31 and 25 games.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic never really squared off in their first head-to-head matchup, with the enormous exception of one game-deciding moment.The established All-Star drove the lane.The rising All-Star had no chance to stop him.There will be plenty of Giannis vs. Luka moments before their NBA careers are all said and done, but the first one came on Monday and it absolutely went Antetokounmpo's way. His dunk over Doncic with 2:50 left was a punctuation mark of sorts in Milwaukee's 116-106 win over Dallas, a game that featured a top international candidate for MVP this season against the very likely international rookie of the year.Antetokounmpo finished the dunk with a stare-down of Doncic. If there was a message in there, Antetokounmpo wasn't saying."Just a dunk," Antetokounmpo said. "It was a momentum play."Doncic — to the 19 year-old's credit — was poised enough afterward to acknowledge that he's still got a lot of room to grow before he consistently gets... [More]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lou Williams won't be coming off the bench for the Los Angeles Clippers against Golden State.The NBA's leading reserve scorer was inactive for Friday night's game at Staples Center because of a sore right hamstring.Williams averages 18.7 points. He's scored at least 15 points in 12 straight games, the league's longest active streak among reserves and his longest streak of the season.He played in his 900th career game on Wednesday against Utah, scoring 23 points.Williams is tied with Houston's James Harden for first in the NBA with 296 fourth-quarter points this season.He missed four games last month with a sore left hamstring and left another game early because of the injury.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — James Harden had a game for the history books.That's good and bad.Harden scored 38 points Sunday night in Houston's 116-109 loss in Orlando, marking the 16th consecutive time that he's scored at least 30 or more points — matching Kobe Bryant for the league's longest such streak since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77.But Harden also was 1 for 17 from 3-point range, tying the league's single-game record for most misses from beyond the arc."They just didn't go in," Harden shrugged afterward.Damon Stoudamire was 5 for 21 from 3-point range for Portland against Golden State on April 15, 2005. Until Sunday, that was the only time a player had missed 16 3s in a game.The NBA's greatest shooters have had awful nights from 3-point range — Dennis Scott once went 2 for 17, Ray Allen once went 1 for 14, Stephen Curry has an 0 for 11 game on his resume. Harden went 0 for 11 from deep in Game 5 of last year's Western Conference finals against Golden State, and has been 0 for 10 on three... [More]

The NBA changed the All-Star voting process two years ago, in part to prevent Zaza Pachulia being elected a starter.Instead, it might keep Dwyane Wade from being one — again. Luka Doncic and Derrick Rose, too.Entering the last full week of balloting, Wade would be in a good position for a farewell All-Star start under the old system, which was solely dependent on fan votes. He's running second among Eastern Conference guards, with a sizeable gap to No. 3 Kemba Walker after the second set of returns were released last week.Doncic is second among West forwards in a bid to start as a rookie, and Rose is ahead of MVP James Harden in the second spot in the West backcourt.But fan vote is now just 50 percent of the process, a change that was made after Pachulia was undeservedly nearly elected a starter through a huge overseas push in 2016. The players' vote and a media panel each account for 25 percent, and in its first year it did stop Pachulia, who would have been elected to start by fans in... [More]

Imagine this: Kevin Durant is out of bounds by an enormous margin, all three referees somehow miss the obvious infraction and Golden State winds up getting a basket that it didn't deserve to take the lead with a few seconds remaining.It seemed implausible.That is, until it happened.When such a scene played out last week in the Houston-Golden State overtime thriller, James Harden kept a ton of egg from landing on the NBA's face when he connected on a 3-pointer to give the Rockets a win in a game they would have screamed bloody murder about otherwise. But what if he missed? Or worse, if a call that big got missed in Game 7 of the NBA Finals?"How do you miss that?" TNT analyst Reggie Miller mused while watching the Durant replay.An obvious question, with an obvious answer: It's time for a change.Everyone in the NBA replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey that night surely saw Durant standing out of bounds. But there is no mechanism for the replay crews to trigger a review of such a play — since,... [More]

James Harden and the Houston Rockets were one half away from the NBA Finals last time they played at Oracle Arena.The way the Rockets are rolling now, they might just get another shot at the champs this postseason.The Rockets try to wrap up a perfect month at home Monday against Memphis, then visit Golden State for the first time since the Western Conference finals, having recovered from a rough start thanks to Harden's torrid stretch.He has scored 40 points in three straight games and 35 or more in seven straight, the longest streak since LeBron James did it in nine in a row in 2006. The NBA scoring leader's quest to repeat as MVP is clearly on track.And after a poor start, so are the Rockets (20-15). They have won four straight and nine of their last 10 games overall, and are 8-0 at home in December after dropping their first four games at the Toyota Center.Just like Game 6 of the West finals, when they blew a double-digit lead, they will play at Golden State for Thursday's nationally... [More]

MIAMI (AP) — Different leg. Same problem.Houston's Chris Paul has a grade 2 strain of his left hamstring, and general manager Daryl Morey said Friday the All-Star point guard will be out at least two weeks."We've got to figure it out," said Rockets guard James Harden, the league's reigning MVP. "Injuries happen."Paul was injured in the second quarter on Thursday night in a loss to Miami. Seeing Paul grab at the back of his leg surely conjured up bad reminders of his right hamstring strain late last season, the injury that knocked him out of Games 6 and 7 of the Western Conference finals against the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors won both of those games to erase the Rockets' 3-2 lead in the series, and went on to sweep Cleveland for the title.The Rockets are 0-5 without Paul this season, and have dropped nine straight when he doesn't play going back to last season. Including playoffs, the Rockets are 77-22 when Paul plays."I've had hamstring issues before and I know how frustrating... [More]

MIAMI (AP) — Different leg. Same problem.Chris Paul has another hamstring issue to deal with, and the Houston Rockets are bracing for another stint without their All-Star point guard. Paul will have an MRI in Houston on Friday to determine the severity of the strain in his left hamstring, one that he hurt during the second quarter of the Rockets' 101-99 loss in Miami."We've got to figure it out," said Rockets guard James Harden, the league's reigning MVP. "Injuries happen."Seeing Paul grab at the back of his leg surely conjured up bad reminders of his right hamstring strain late last season, the injury that knocked him out of Games 6 and 7 of the Western Conference finals against the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors won both of those games to erase the Rockets' 3-2 lead in the series, and went on to sweep Cleveland for the NBA title.The Rockets are 0-5 without Paul this season, and have dropped nine straight when he doesn't play going back to last season. Including playoffs, the Rockets... [More]

WASHINGTON (AP) — This was hardly the ideal way for LeBron James and his Los Angeles Lakers to cap what amounted to an eventful week of highs and lows.And arriving one night after what seemed to be a breakthrough performance, this dud demonstrated just how much more room for improvement four-time NBA MVP James and his new teammates have.James shot just 5 for 16, managing merely a season-worst 13 points. He and the rest of the Lakers put up barely any resistance at the defensive end and trailed by as many as 27 points while stumbling their way to a 128-110 loss to the Washington Wizards on Sunday night."We're a good team," James insisted afterward. "Tonight was just one of those instances where we didn't play well."That's certainly true, at both ends of the court and in various ways.The 22 turnovers. The 51-43 rebounding deficit. The 0-for-8 start on 3-point attempts. The way they allowed Wizards point guard John Wall to dominate en route to a 40-point, 14-assist performance."Not a lot of... [More]

With eight shopping days to Christmas, the NBA's decision to have Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo and Philadelphia's Joel Embiid in its holiday lineup is more than just sides in another hoop smorgasbord.It puts the spotlight on — and raises a question — about the MVP race, as in, who in the Eastern Conference is a legitimate contender. It's a question because the last East MVP, LeBron James going on six years ago, has moved West.Of course, the conversation has to include the biggest name to go the opposite direction this past offseason: Toronto's Kawhi Leonard, who forced his way out of San Antonio in a trade after missing most of last season with a mysterious leg injury."Oh yeah," first-year Atlanta coach Lloyd Pierce declared about the East's MVP hopes."We missed Kawhi last year and the people that coached against him didn't for a reason," said Pierce, who was an assistant with the 76ers for Embiid's first two seasons. "He's a dominant two-way player. Antetokounmpo is unbelievable and... [More]

So much changed after Kawhi Leonard crashed to the Oracle Arena floor on May 14, 2017.The San Antonio Spurs had a 23-point lead on the Warriors in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals when Leonard departed with 26 points, poised to take away home-court advantage in the series between teams who won more than 60 games.Leonard injured his ankle when he landed on Zaza Pachulia's foot after taking a jump shot, and things were never the same again for the Spurs or Leonard. The Spurs couldn't hold on to win that game or any other in the series without their All-Star forward, whose ankle injury would be followed by a lingering thigh injury that would limit him to just nine games the following season and strain relations between the team and player. Leonard was ultimately granted his desire to leave San Antonio when he was traded to Toronto in the offseason.If Leonard doesn't go down, maybe the Spurs win that game, maybe the series and maybe another championship. Maybe Leonard wouldn't have wanted... [More]

So much changed after Kawhi Leonard crashed to the Oracle Arena floor on May 14, 2017.The San Antonio Spurs had a 23-point lead on the Warriors in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals when Leonard departed with 26 points, poised to take away home-court advantage in the series between teams who won more than 60 games.Leonard injured his ankle when he landed on Zaza Pachulia's foot after taking a jump shot, and things were never the same again for the Spurs or Leonard. The Spurs couldn't hold on to win that game or any other in the series without their All-Star forward, whose ankle injury would be followed by a lingering thigh injury that would limit him to just nine games the following season and strain relations between the team and player. Leonard was ultimately granted his desire to leave San Antonio when he was traded to Toronto in the offseason.If Leonard doesn't go down, maybe the Spurs win that game, maybe the series and maybe another championship. Maybe Leonard wouldn't have wanted... [More]

HOUSTON (AP) — Carmelo Anthony is done in Houston.Rockets general manager Daryl Morey released a statement Thursday saying the team is "parting ways" with Anthony and "working toward a resolution."Anthony played just 10 games for the Rockets after signing a one-year, $2.4 million deal during the offseason."Carmelo had a tremendous approach during his time with the Rockets and accepted every role head coach Mike D'Antoni gave him," Morey said. "The fit we envisioned when Carmelo chose to sign with the Rockets has not materialized, therefore we thought it was best to move on as any other outcome would have been unfair to him."Anthony was traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Atlanta Hawks in July before the Hawks released him to clear the way for him to sign with the Rockets.Houston star James Harden said he liked having Anthony on his team but that the decision was out of his hands."It's one of my friends. He's a great guy, great teammate," Harden said. "It just didn't work out. It's... [More]

DENVER (AP) — Nuggets coach Michael Malone kept the mood light at practice Monday and the lectures to a minimum.No reason to get too worked up over Denver's current three-game skid. After all, this is the same bunch that began 9-1 for one of the best starts in franchise history.Malone's missive to his team: Rediscover that resolve."It's too early in the season to have their heads down and have it be gloom and doom," said Malone, whose team hosts James Harden, Chris Paul and the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night. "We're young. Some of these guys are in moments they haven't been in before. That's my job, to teach and keep this team moving along in the right direction."Given their recent history, there's a sense of early season urgency. That's understandable since the Nuggets missed the playoffs by a game in each of the last two years. They don't want piled-up losses in November to come back and haunt them in April.Especially since everything was going so smoothly out of the gate. But the Nuggets... [More]

CHICAGO (AP) — James Harden returned to the Houston Rockets' starting lineup Saturday night against the Chicago Bulls after missing three games because of a strained left hamstring.The NBA MVP last season, Harden has appeared in four games and leads Houston with an average of 28.5 points. He was injured near the end of the loss to Utah on Oct. 24, and Houston was routed in the next two games.The Rockets beat the Nets in Brooklyn 119-111 on Friday night as Harden got an extra day of rest.Guard Eric Gordon was held out of Saturday's game with an abductor strain, suffered at Brooklyn.

NEW YORK (AP) — James Harden is missing his third straight game with a strained left hamstring and Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni says he will probably return Saturday.Harden has worked out without discomfort but the Rockets are playing on back-to-back nights, starting Friday at Brooklyn.Because he wouldn't use Harden in both games after returning from injury, D'Antoni is opting to wait the extra day and bring Harden back Saturday at Chicago. He says if the Rockets were just playing Friday and then been off, Harden likely would have played against the Nets.The league MVP was hurt near the end of a loss to Utah on Oct. 24 and Houston had been routed in both games since.___More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Blake Griffin had this season's highest-scoring game for all of about 24 hours before Stephen Curry bettered it — in just three quarters.Then, in Golden State's next game, after Curry poured in 51 points in a rout of Washington, Kevin Durant scored 25 in the fourth quarter, the best total of his career, and finished with 41 in a victory at New York.With the Warriors teammates' big nights and Griffin's 50-point outburst for Detroit coming in just a four-night span, it continued a torrid start for scorers that Curry said made it seem like "everybody's clicking at the same time."But count Curry among those who aren't sure the offensive onslaughts being seen now will still be seen in a few months."Those are just great players just making plays, having great nights. That's not any different than any other year," he said after Durant's big night."We're six games in. We'll see how it goes."Damian Lillard has already had a pair of 40-point nights and Kemba Walker is one point shy of doing the same.... [More]

Blake Griffin had this season's highest-scoring game for all of about 24 hours before Stephen Curry bettered it — in just three quarters.Then, in Golden State's next game, after Curry poured in 51 points in a rout of Washington, Kevin Durant scored 25 in the fourth quarter, the best total of his career, and finished with 41 in a victory at New York.With the Warriors teammates' big nights and Griffin's 50-point outburst for Detroit coming in just a four-night span, it continued a torrid start for scorers that Curry said made it seem like "everybody's clicking at the same time."But count Curry among those who aren't sure the offensive onslaughts being seen now will still be seen in a few months."Those are just great players just making plays, having great nights. That's not any different than any other year," he said after Durant's big night."We're six games in. We'll see how it goes."Damian Lillard has already had a pair of 40-point nights and Kemba Walker is one point shy of doing the same.... [More]

Blake Griffin had this season's highest-scoring game for all of about 24 hours before Stephen Curry bettered it — in just three quarters.Then in Golden State's next game after Curry poured in 51 points in a rout of Washington, Kevin Durant scored 25 in the fourth quarter, the best total of his career, and finished with 41 in a victory at New York.With the Warriors teammates' big nights and Griffin's 50-point outburst for Detroit coming in just a four-night span, it continued a torrid start for scorers that Curry said made it seem like "everybody's clicking at the same time."But count Curry among those who isn't sure the offensive onslaughts being seen now are will still be seen in a few months."Those are just great players just making plays, having great nights. That's not any different than any other year," he said after Durant's big night."We're six games in. We'll see how it goes."Damian Lillard has already had a pair of 40-point nights and Kemba Walker is one point shy of doing the... [More]