Rockets working on rotation of James Harden, Chris Paul

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Determined to always have either James Harden or Chris Paul on the floor at point guard, the Rockets have used Chris Paul as the playmaker for the second unit.

A variety of reasons led to Paul leaving the game and returning to the floor while Harden played through most of the first quarter, but it was not an experiment with Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni expecting to use that rotation when the season starts Oct. 17.

He generally thought it did not matter how he split Paul's and Harden's time at the point, but did like having Paul in the shorter stints and Harden coming out of the game with a few minutes left in the first quarter, earlier than he did last season.

"I think that's probably what we're going to do," D'Antoni said. "One of those two has got to come out. One thing we leave a couple minutes for James (before he gets tired.) I've always believed once he get over the hill with tiredness, it's hard to go to the bench for three or four minutes and get it back. It's better to go to the bench before you really get tired. That'll help James. I think the last two minutes toward the end of the quarter, it seemed like he was dragging a little bit.

"With Chris, because he older (32) and the second one here, he seems to be OK to come out quicker and then go back in. We'll see. If bothers (him), maybe we'll try James. Nothing is written in stone. We're trying to figure it out. He seems to be OK with it. Then I can play Chris ... five or six minutes in a row for him not to go over the edge."