JAMES HARDEN had 34 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds as the Houston Rockets held off San Antonio, 101-99, on Wednesday night.

    Houston Rockets superstar Harden has been the statistical revelation of the young 2016-17 season, putting up his usually terrific scoring numbers and also leading the league in assists as the primary creator in head coach Mike D’Antoni’s shot-happy offense.

    Never short on confidence, Harden has taken on unprecedented offensive responsibility without losing anything in shooting efficiency. He’s also been very fun to watch, a major turnaround from the aesthetic lows of last year’s Rockets.

    Those qualities were all on display in Wednesday’s victory at the Spurs. Harden added eight turnovers and either failed to score or turned it over on Houston’s final six possessions. It was a simultaneously brilliant and maddening showing — he was the hero and would have been the goat had the Rockets lost.

    They didn’t, though, thanks in part to a defense that has been anything but stingy so far this season. A breakneck first half — Houston led 63-60 at the break — gave way to a very different second in which neither team managed more than 39 points. The Spurs had two close looks to get to 41 on the game’s final possession, but they were unable to convert.

    That ending meant a third-straight home loss for the Spurs, who lost just one regular season game at AT&T Center during the entire 2015-16 season. All three have come against groups that rate as solid playoff teams — the Rockets, Los Angeles Clippers, and Utah Jazz (in reverse order) — but it’s still a troubling streak of defeats for a squad that’s considered a title contender. The one clear bright spot is that Kawhi Leonard continues to look like a do-everything superstar and MVP candidate. His 34 points were major, although it’s certainly a problem that only two others scored in double figures with a team shooting percentage under 40 percent.

    In another game, Klay Thompson hit his first seven shots and scored 18 of his 20 points in the first quarter, and the Golden State Warriors cruised past the undermanned Dallas Mavericks 116-95 Wednesday night.

    Kevin Durant led Golden State with 28 points, Stephen Curry added 24 and Draymond Green had 16 points and 10 rebounds as the Warriors used their outside shooting to build a 19-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back.

    Harrison Barnes scored 25 points to lead Dallas in his first game against the Warriors since leaving the team as a free agent last summer.

    “Nobody’s really worried about Klay and him shooting the ball,” Curry said of Thompson’s breakout.

    “That’s what he does. He wakes up and shoots the ball.”

    Thompson was not alone Wednesday. The Warriors were firing at full blast, claiming 14 3-pointers in the first half, pushing the lead to 33. The show’s apex came when Stephen Curry unleashed a 31-footer right in brother Seth Curry’s face.

    Then, as sometimes happens, the game turned for a moment on Steph Curry’s ankle. He tweaked it at the start of the third quarter while guarding his brother and trundled off to the locker room.

    Golden State’s energy ebbed and the Mavericks chipped away at the lead, closing the gap to 13 points. (SD-Agencies)