Rule No. 1 in defending James Harden: Throw different looks at him.

Rule No. 2: See above.

At least, that was Denver’s highly effective blueprint.

„You have to have rules against James Harden,“ Denver coach Michael Malone explained. „You can’t play him with your standard defense. Great player defense is required for great players.“

So, the Nuggets tried a little bit of everything to contain Harden, even rolling the 7-foot Jokic out high along with another defender.

The variety of schemes did the trick — as much as it can against Harden. Houston’s star playmaker finished with 27 points, snapping his string of eight consecutive games with 36 or more. He was 8 of 16 from the floor as the Rockets were held under 100 points for the first time this season. They were averaging an NBA-best 119.5 per game.

„We were locked in,“ said Jokic, whose team is 7-0 this season when keeping an opponent below 100 points.

Still, Jokic found it funny that his team was being lauded for „stopping“ Harden.

„That’s crazy when a guy scores 27 and it’s bad,“ Jokic said. „We know he’s going to score. He’s going to be aggressive. Just make it harder and try to be there. … Just to give them different looks.“

ESPN