James Harden can be forgiven for being less than stellar for the Houston Rockets against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night.

His numbers were mediocre, but his team got the win.

“It felt good to be back on the court, just that atmosphere, dribbling the basketball,” Harden told ESPN.com’s Tim MacMahon.

“Those 7 (games) felt like an extremely long time, but the feeling and the vibe feels great. We got a win, and that's all that matters.”

Harden returned from a 7-game injury hiatus because of a hamstring issue, but took a backseat to the dynamic play of Chris Paul and Eric Gordon in Houston’s 116-98 victory over visiting Minnesota.

Harden, playing under a minutes restriction, finished with 10 points on 3-of-15 shooting and 7 assists over 26 minutes, the first time this season he failed to record at least 20 points.

“He’s rusty,” Houston coach Mike D'Antoni said.

But Gordon and Paul filled the scoring void. Gordon posted 30 points off the bench, while Paul tallied 19 points, six rebounds and nine assists.

In other games Thursday (Friday morning), Isaiah Thomas scored 21 points and hit the go-ahead free throws with 11 seconds remaining as the Cleveland Cavaliers blew a 23-point lead but held off the Orlando Magic for a 104-103 in Cleveland.

LeBron James, who scored 16 points for the Cavaliers, is 25 points away from becoming the seventh player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points.

In Boston, recently named All-Star starter Joel Embiid had 26 points, 16 rebounds and six assists in an overall dominant effort for visiting Philadelphia, which held on to win 89-80.

In Portland, Damian Lillard collected 26 points, eight assists and five rebounds, and Jusuf Nurkic scored 19 points and grabbed 17 rebounds as the Trail Blazers topped Indiana 100-86.

-- With a report from Reuters