Harden playing through knee injury: 'It can't get worse'

The Beard is a bit banged up.

Houston Rockets guard James Harden suited up in Saturday's game against the Milwaukee Bucks despite dealing with a bruised right knee.

Harden, 28, admitted afterward he came "pretty close" to not playing at all. He expects to continue harboring pain in the leg for a while, though he doesn't know how long exactly.

"I wasn't feeling well at all, 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," he told reporters following the 115-111 win over the Bucks, as quoted by ESPN's Tim MacMahon.

"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.'"

The MVP contender hurt his knee Friday when he fell into the basket support as he was fouled against the San Antonio Spurs. Entering the second game of the back-to-back set listed as a game-time decision, Harden started against Milwaukee and collected a game-high 31 points to go along with six rebounds, five assists, and a block in 39 minutes to help extend Houston's winning streak to 13.

While he doesn't plan on missing time with the knock, he confessed the soreness is setting him back.

"I wasn't moving like I usually move, but we won. Move on to the next game," he said.

Harden's averaging a league-leading 31.5 points per game to go along with 9.1 dimes, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.8 steals. He and the first-place Rockets will continue their home stand Monday against the Utah Jazz.