James Harden scored a career-high 50 points and pulled down 10 rebounds on Thursday to lift the Houston Rockets to a 118-108 NBA victory over Denver.
Harden made four three-pointers and went 22-of-25 from the free-throw line as the Rockets notched their third straight victory.
Harden had scored at least 40 points 11 times in his career, including six prior times this season.
Harden said while he felt good on the court, nothing about the way he prepared was different.
"It (warm-up) was just normal, did my routine and went put and played basketball," Harden said.
"I had a good first quarter, overall the ball was moving really well and we were creating opportunities.
"When I am aggressive... in attack mode, it opens things up for my teammates as well and it was one of those night's where I had it going."
With Thursday's performance he topped his previous career high of 46 points, set in 2013. He scored 45 against Indiana on January 19.
Trevor Ariza added 17 for Houston and Josh Smith chipped in 12.
Wilson Chandler and Randy Foye each scored 23 points for the Nuggets, who have dropped two straight following a four-game winning streak.
In Los Angeles the Utah Jazz got back on the winners list with an 80-73 victory over the struggling LA Lakers.
While Dante Exum didn't trouble the scorer, it was fellow Aussie Joe Ingles who helped get the Jazz off to a good start with a couple of early threes.
Ingles would go on to have nine points for the game, with Gordon Hayward leading the way for the Jazz with 22.
While the Jazz kept their fanciful hopes of the playoffs alive, the complexion in the real battle for eighth in the Western Conference changed again, with Phoenix recording a 74-72 win over New Orleans, who were without star forward Anthony Davis.
Davis rolled his ankle in the pre-game shootaround and was withdrawn from the game.
The absence of Davis, who is averaging 24.6 points per game hurt the Pelicans badly, Eric Gordon their leading scorer on the night with just 14 points.
The result dropped New Orleans one game behind eighth-placed Oklahoma City and brought Phoenix within three wins of eighth.
In the day's other game Minnesota beat New York 95-92 in overtime at Madison Square Garden.
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