On
Jan. 23, the Houston Rockets escaped with a four-point win at the New York
Knicks, thanks to a career-high and franchise record scoring night from the
NBA’s leading scorer James Harden. It was an unforgettable performance by the
reigning Kia MVP who has turned in plenty of them so far this season. He added
another chapter to his stellar season on Friday night versus the Rockets’
interstate and Southwest Division rivals.
In
the Rockets 111-105 win versus the five-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs
(42-31) on Friday night, James Harden scored a career-high tying and
franchise-tying 61 points on 19 for 34 from the field, including 9 for 13 from
three-point range and 14 for 17 from the free throw line.
“I
felt great from the beginning of the game,” Harden, who began the night with 27
points of the Rockets 36 points in the first quarter on 7 for 10 from the
field, including 3 for 4 from three-point range and 10 for 12 from the charity
stripe said to NBATV’s Ro Parrish, Lionel Hollins, and Rex Chapman after the
win. “I was in attack mode. My shot was feeling good, and I just tried to keep
that rhythm and that pace the entire game.”
It
was the second time this season that Harden scored 61, with the first coming in
the Rockets (46-27) 114-110 win at the Knicks (14-59) as mentioned in late
January, going 17 for 38 from the field, including going 5 for 20 from
three-point range and 22 for 25 from the free throw line, setting a new MSG
record for an opponent while also registering 15 rebounds and five steals in 40
minutes.
This
61-point performance by Harden where he had seven rebounds and three steals
represented the highest individual scoring output against a Gregg Popovich
coached team, where he went 10 for 18 shooting in the first half for 37 points,
a Rockets record for points in a half and 9 for 16 in the second half for 24
points.
“We
gave up a million points in the first quarter, they had 19 free throws in the
first half and none in the third quarter,” Coach Popovich said after the loss. “You
play with your heart and you play in between the ears, also, so we played
smarter and harder in the second half, but you can’t do that against a good
team like Houston or any team in the NBA. You got to play for 48 minutes and we
played the last two quarters, and at the end, you know James put on an MVP
performance. So, that’s that.”
When
asked by Chapman, who remembers seeing Harden play on many occasions back when
he was playing for the Arizona State Sun Devils if he ever could imagine having
the kind of scoring performance, he had against Coach Popovich and the Spurs?
His
answer, “No. Not in a million years. Not in a million years,” adding, “but you
know Rex, I work hard every single day to be the best I can be, you know, and
even nights and days when I don’t want to get up or I’m tired, or whatever the
case may be. Because honestly like I got a chance to be one of the best players
to ever touch a basketball.”
“As
a kid that’s something you dream of. And so, that’s the mindset and that’s what
I wake up every single day and go get.”
Harden
without question had that get after it attitude on Friday night scoring 37
points in the opening half as he reached the 30-point mark early in the second
quarter and hit the 40-point mark with about nine minutes left in the third
period.
The
Spurs however came back into the contest as they overcame a 62-47 halftime
deficit to tie the score at 81 a piece entering the fourth quarter and were on
the high side of the scoreboard at 100-94 with four minutes remaining.
The
Rockets, who were outscored by the Spurs 57-45 in the middle two quarters
responded with a 13-2 run to take a 107-102 lead thanks to three straight made
three-pointers by Harden and two difficult made two-point baskets.
“The
Spurs do a really good job of trying to take away my perimeter shots. So, it
was me being in attack mode and being aggressive tonight,” Harden, who scored
118 points the last two games, the most since future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant
did it back in the 2006-07 campaign said after the win. “They made a huge run
in that second and third quarter and even in the fourth quarter and we just
tried to keep our tempo, get some stops when we needed to, and I wanted to be
aggressive.”
To
put into context what Harden did on Friday night, he tied Elgin Baylor for the
fourth most 60-point games in NBA history in the regular-season with three.
Only the great Michael Jordan (four), Bryant (six) and the late great Hall of
Famer Wilt Chamberlin (32) have done it more.
He
topped the 50-point mark for the eighth time this season, as compared to the 10
performances combined by the rest of “The Association.”
Including
his 57-point performance in the Rockets 126-125 overtime loss at the Memphis
Grizzlies (29-43) on Wednesday night, Harden has scored a total of 118 points
the last two games, joining Bryant, Jordan, and Chamberlin as the only players
in the NBA history to score that many points over a two-game span. Harden also
on Friday night passed former Rocket Joe Johnson to move into 10th
place on the all-time three-pointers made list and his eight triples away from
passing Hall of Famer Jason Kidd into ninth place.
Along
with the three times he has scored 60-plus in his career, Harden has scored
50-plus 15 times and has 59 career games scoring 40-plus.
“You
know, I’ve said it before, so I don’t want to be so redundant but, you can’t
get better offense than just what he did,” Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni
said of Harden’s performance versus the Spurs. “I mean, it was so pure, he
threes were unbelievable. The bank shot that he had towards the end. His
drives, putting pressure on anybody that wants to guard him. That was
impressive.”
“Of
all the things like for the MVP race and all that but my gosh, that’s a whole
different level.”
Earlier
in the week, Harden scored 31 points with 10 rebounds and eight assists in the Rockets
121-105 win at the Atlanta Hawks (25-48) on Tuesday night, meaning he has
scored 30 against all the other 29 teams not for his career but this season, a
new NBA record. He joined Jordan and Boston Celtic Hall of Famer Larry Bird to
accomplish that feat since the 1976-77 NBA merger. When Bird and Bird
accomplished this in the 1984-85 and 1986-87 seasons respectably, there were
only 23 total teams in “The Association,” according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“I’m
just saying, we keep mentioning him along Larry Bird, Jordan, Wilt Chamberlin,
I mean, I’d already give this guy the MVP. I’d already crowned him the best
player in the league,” NBA analyst and future Hall of Famer Paul Pierce said on
the Wednesday edition of “NBA: The Jump” on ESPN. “I don’t know why he doesn’t
get his due but that is a tremendous feet.”
Unlike
those greats as mentioned earlier Harden a lot of times this season and for
much of the past few years has gotten criticized for how he has gotten his
numbers. People in the media and fans feel that he is a ball hog to where he is
constantly going one-on-one and dribbling for much of the 24 seconds on the
shot clock to score the amount of points he gets.
That
could not be any further from the truth. While Harden is scoring at a very high
clip as evidence by the 32 straight games of scoring 30 points or more and is
leading “The Association” in scoring at 36.5, he is also averaging 7.6 assists
and 6.5 rebounds per contest this season.
Also
in the two years he finished second in the Kia MVP race, Harden finished behind
Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder who joined Oscar Robertson to average
a triple-double for a single season in 2016-17 and the year before that
finished behind the first unanimous Kia MVP in Stephen Curry of the Golden
State Warriors who finished with a single-season record 73 wins in the 2015-16
NBA campaign.
Hall
of Famer and prolific scorer during his career in Tracy McGrady said on that
same edition of “NBA: The Jump” that Harden’s incredible offensive output the
last five seasons in huge part because of Coach D’Antoni’s system designed for
a player of his ability to “get buckets.”
“This
system, it creates a beast in a player that dominates the ball with shooters spread
around,” he said. “I’m not taking anything away from James.”
It
is because Harden has been so prolific offensively that the Rockets were able
to recover from an 11-14 start and out of the playoff picture in the early part
of this season and with injuries to nine-time All-Star Chris Paul, sharp
shooter Eric Gordon and starting center Clint Capela that the Rockets are now
third in the unforgiving Western Conference with a 35-13 mark since then.
“You’ve
got to appreciate it,” Paul said of the historic scoring season his teammate
Harden is having. “What he’s doing, that ain’t easy. I don’t care who you are.”
Four-time
All-Star DeMar DeRozan, who had 16 points, eight boards and eight assists in
the loss, the Spurs third in four tries this season against the Rockets concurred
by saying, “He’s really been in the zone all year with the things he’s been
doing.”
“He’s
been remarkable. You’ve got to tip your hats to him. When a guy gets going like
that, it’s tough to slow him down.”
While
he only managed just one assists against the Spurs, Harden did make a conscious
effort to get his teammates open shots because as he said to Parrish, Hollins,
and Chapman after the game that he is “going to need.”
“That
little break in between the second and third quarter, Eric made some shots. He
was aggressive guys were getting into their rhythm and I kind of like seem to
bog down a little bit. So, in the fourth quarter I had to be aggressive and
take my shots.”
Paul
scored 18 points on 7 for 15 shooting with five assists, while Gordon scored 12
points, hitting just 3 for 9 from three-point range.
While
Capela had just seven points in the game and the other starting forward PJ
Tucker did not score, missing all three of three-point attempts, they each
contributed on the boards with Capela getting 16 rebounds and Tucker had 10
boards with two block shots.
Tucker
also was big defensively as he held perennial All-Star and his former
collegiate teammate at the University of Texas forward LaMarcus Aldridge to 10
points and four rebounds on 5 for 13 from the field.
When
Harden scored 61 the first time against the Knicks, he made the defensive play
of the game by stealing the pass to forward Noah Vonleh on the Knicks final
offensive possession in the closing seconds and sealed the game with a dunk off
that for the four-point win.
Along
with an unquestioned will and focus the other thing that drives Harden is that
he loves to play. When asked by Parrish on the new terms for players who sit
out games because of rest called “load management,” Harden said with a smile,
“What’s that?”
He
added, “I’m a Hooper. I’m a Hooper. I know hooping is not going to be here
forever…The best days are when your legs are a little tired and your shot isn’t
falling. Those are the best days because you got to figure out a way to get
through it.”
The
Houston Rockets had as mentioned a rough start to this season being three games
under .500, with thoughts that they were going to miss out on the playoffs
after falling just one game short of reaching the NBA Finals last spring.
Because of Harden and the historic scoring output he has had this season, which
continued with his career-high and franchise tying 61 points on Friday night
the Rockets are not only the No. 3 Seed in the West currently they have
regained that necessary confidence that they can do what they did not last
season and that is overtake the back-to-back defending champion Golden State
Warriors, who they hope to see if both teams make it to the Western Conference
Finals.
That
is why nights like what Harden had in Friday night’s win versus the Spurs do
not really matter to him now.
To
Harden he is just doing what is necessary for the Rockets to win and that they
have bigger goals in mind and he will not rest until that goal is reached,
which is to win the organization’s third Larry O’Brien trophy in franchise
history.
“So,
I’m not satisfied, we got a long-ways to go,” Harden, whose team has won 13 of
their last 15 games and is 8-1 in their last nine games at Toyota Center said.
“We’re finally healthy. So, we got to catch a
rhythm. Basically offensively, knowing where guys like to be defensively. Our
rotations are going to be. What our coverages are once we get that rhythm. We
have nine games to do it and then we’ll take it from there, but we’re excited.”
Information,
statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 3/20/19 3 p.m. edition of “NBA: The
Jump,” with Rachel Nichols, Paul Pierce, Tracy McGrady and Zach Lowe; 3/23/19 2
a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” presented by State Farm with Rick Kamla,
Dennis Scott, and Drew Gooden, interview from Ro Parrish, Lionel Hollins, and
Rex Chapman; https://www.nba.com/games/20190322/SASHOU#/matchup/boxscore/recap; and www.espn.com/nba/gamelog/_/id/3992/james-harden.
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