WHILE 27 points is nothing to sneeze at, it’s generally an average night for James Harden.

    But Wednesday wasn’t just another game for Harden. He passed the 10,000-point mark for his career in the Rockets’ 107-104 win over the Timberwolves.

    Harden now has 10,005 points for his career in 492 games. He also added 11 assists for the Rockets, who won their fifth game in a row.

    “We’re playing for each other. That’s the most important thing,” Harden said. “So if a guy messes up, guys got his back. Everything isn’t going to be perfect all the time and that’s what we’re starting to realize and we’re just helping each other out.”

    Minnesota lost its season-worst eighth in a row.

    The Timberwolves stuck around the entire second half. They trailed by three when Jason Terry made a 3-pointer with about two minutes left to extend Houston’s lead to 105-99.

    Harden followed with a jump shot before Minnesota got a layup from Kevin Martin and a pair of free throws from Karl-Anthony Towns to get within 107-104.

    Minnesota had a chance to tie it just before the buzzer, but Martin’s 3-point attempt didn’t even touch the rim.

    Harden believes the Rockets would have lost a game like this early in the season when they got off to such a terrible start that it cost coach Kevin McHale his job.

    “I think we would have let this game slip away, but no matter how bad we struggled, especially in the first three quarters, we locked in and we got stops when we needed to and we just scored,” he said.

    Andrew Wiggins had 28 points and Towns had 12 points and 16 rebounds for the Timberwolves.

    “We had too many turnovers,” Minnesota coach Sam Mitchell said of his team’s 20. “Every time we turned the ball over they got a layup or a dunk. Where those turnovers come from, I don’t know. There were things that we just don’t normally do.”

    Dwight Howard added 15 points and 10 rebounds and Terrence Jones came off the bench to score 16 with nine rebounds for the Rockets.

    The Timberwolves opened the fourth quarter with a 6-1 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Nemanja Bjelica to take an 83-82 lead with 10 1/2 minutes remaining.

    They wouldn’t have the lead for long as the Rockets scored the next 10 points to make it 92-83. Howard started that stretch with a reverse dunk that he was fouled on. He missed the free throw, but Jones tipped in the rebound for Houston and also made a 3-pointer in that span.

    (SD-Agencies)