Top 100 moments of the 2018-19 NBA season, Part 2

3. The best of James Harden we somehow haven’t covered yet

From the 30-point streak to some of the best duels of the season to the Game of the Year that we’ll cover soon, James Harden left more of an imprint on the 2018-19 campaign than anyone. Even if Giannis wins a well-deserved MVP award, this bearded face will be the one we remember as the face of the NBA this year.

We could get into how he led a shorthanded Rockets team back from the depths of the Western Conference, how his step-back 3 became the most unguardable weapon in the league, how he scored in isolation at a historically unprecedented rate that nearly broke the game of basketball itself, but this isn’t about making an MVP case. In that light, his (other) standout moments are what we’re concerned with.

This season, Harden joined Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant as the only players in the last 30 years to score at least 400 points in a 10-game span. He accounted for the most points, rebounds and assists in a 10-game span in NBA history in late December. He set the record for consecutive games with at least 35 points and five assists, doing it 16 straight times.

He dropped 41 on Christmas, followed up with 45 on the Celtics, then dropped a 40-point triple-double in less than 30 minutes on the Cavs a few weeks later, becoming the first to ever do so in that amount of time and putting other legends to shame in the process.

He passed Kobe Bryant for 14th on the all-time made 3-pointers list, tied the highest two-game scoring total in NBA history with 61 and 57 in back-to-back games and broke Kobe’s record for most points scored by an opponent at Madison Square Garden with 61.

His 52.5 points per game over one five-game stretch were surpassed only by Wilt Chamberlain. He sunk daggers in 40-point performances, averaged 41.1 points per game during his 30-point scoring streak and became the first player in NBA history to score at least 30 points against all 29 teams in the same season.

He averaged a league-leading 36.1 points — the highest scoring average in the NBA since Michael Jordan’s 37.0 points per game in 1986-87 — along with 7.5 assists and 6.1 rebounds per game. He posted unprecedented stat lines on a weekly basis and now has more 30-point, 10-assist games (76) than anyone in NBA history except for Oscar Robertson.

James Harden may or may not win MVP this season, but anyone who says he’s gamed the system, that all his points come from drawing fouls or that he’s overrated doesn’t know a damn thing about the game of basketball.