James Harden says he will play through bruised knee pain

The Houston Rockets are on a 13-game winning streak — since Chris Paul’s return, not so coincidentally — but James Harden almost sat out the most recent win, Saturday night against Milwaukee, because his knee was bothering him.

Instead, he’s decided to play through it and scored 31 points. Harden told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon this is the kind of injury that is not going to get worse, so he just wants to play through it.

“I wasn’t feeling well at all (Saturday), but the doc came in and just told me that there’s going to be pain for a bit, but you can play through it,” Harden said. “It can’t get worse, but it’s going to be pretty painful until obviously you give it some time. Once he said that, I was like, ‘Let’s go.’”

Last Friday night against the Spurs, Harden hurt his knee when he crashed into the basket stanchion on a driving layup where he was fouled.

Harden dropped 31 with that sore knee against the Bucks, expect him to go against the Jazz Monday and the Lakers on Wednesday. And, of course, he will go on Christmas Day when the Rockets face off against the Thunder on national television.