The Houston Rockets reached the Western Conference finals for the first time in 18 years before being eliminated in five games by the Golden State Warriors. Harden was the MVP runner-up to Golden State's Stephen Curry after scoring 27.4 points a game to finishing second in the NBA. ''But as I've said all year long, we don't win the division, we don't win 56 games, we don't have home court, we don't beat the Clippers in Game 7 if it wasn't for James.'' Harden carried the team in the regular season when Howard sat out 41 games with injuries and helped the Rockets to a 56-26 record and the second seed in the Western Conference.