“It wasn't bad," Head Coach Mike D'Antoni said jokingly. “Amazing. Just topped it off with a four point play at the end. It was just incredible; but, we had to have every minute from him -- which (is) way too many minutes. But, we had to have every minute with Eric going down. He (Harden) didn't pick his spot.. He picked every spot. Every time he did something positive.”

The Rockets did need all of Harden's points because the Orlando Magic knocked down shots for much of the ball game. The largest lead of the game was seven points by the Rockets. The Magic led by as much as five points.

“Again, at the end of the day they got 19 (points) in the fourth, they had 107 (points), and shooting the heck out of it, D'Antoni added.” “They’re a good offensive team, so we want to get better. There were some times that we had some lapses and gave them some open looks, but every time we made a mistake, they made us pay for it with a three. Normally, you’re going to make some mistakes and get away with it, but they wouldn’t let us get away with it. Good for them, they played well, but we just had a little bit too much at the end. And I thought guys, they kept getting better. You know, P.J. (Tucker) and Luc (Mbah a Moute) and those guys, the defense kept getting a little bit better.”

The game was tied at 107 with 3:36 on the clock. At that point in the game, Harden had outscored his teammates 54 to 53. Harden scored six of the final seven points of the game including a step back 20-footer with the shot clock winding down and a four-point play for a 113-107 lead with 45.4 seconds remaining in the ball game.

Harden scored 12 of the Rockets' final 13 points.

Down the stretch, the Rockets finally got some defensive stops, including a five second inbounds violation.

“We couldn’t get stops throughout the entire game,” Harden said after the game. “They kept knocking down big time shots, Mo (Marreese) Speights, (Evan) Fournier, D.J. Augustin, those guys, they put up a fight tonight. They made some tough shots, we just kept going back in fourth, we kept trading baskets. So, I was just trying to figure out how we can get a stop. We need to find some momentum to create some defense with our offense, (and in the) fourth quarter we did it.”

Harden's assessment of his historic triple-double is very modest.

“It’s a good feeling I guess, I just trying to go out there and make an impact every single night on the game. However I can, whether it’s scoring, rebounding, assists, steals. You know, whatever it is and tonight I guess I was just doing everything.”

Harden broke Calvin Murphy’s franchise single game record of 57 points set vs. New Jersey on March 17, 1978.  Tonight is the third time Harden has recorded at least 50 points while recording a triple-double in his career which is tied for the most in NBA history. 

Harden has scored 50 or more points four times this season after doing so five times prior in his career.  Tonight marked Harden’s third triple-double of the season and the 34th of his career, all coming as a Rocket (Houston 28-6 mark). 

Harden shot 17-of-18 from the line tonight.  He is averaging 14.7 free throw attempts over the past three games after having a total of 11 free throw attempts in his first four games back from injury.  Harden is averaging a league-high 10.1 free throw attempts overall this season.

The Rockets improve to 36-13 this season, which is tied for the best record in franchise history through the first 49 games of a season (1993-94).

The Rockets next game is this Thursday, February 1, at San Antonio. Tip is set for 7 p.m.