Even at James Harden’s worst, he was good enough to sink the Jazz

Despite a horrendous shooting performance in Game 3, James Harden gave the Houston Rockets enough to beat the Utah Jazz and take a 3-0 series lead.

If you stayed up late to watch Game 3 of the Houston Rockets‘ first round matchup with the Utah Jazz, you no doubt saw James Harden miss a lot of shots — 17 to be exact.

In the unfriendly confines of the Vivint Smart Home Arena, the Jazz’s relentless game plan of steering the reigning (and possible future two-time) MVP to his right hand forced misfire after misfire. Their efforts led to a 3-of-20 shooting night for Houston’s superstar.

There’s no way to sugarcoat it; Harden had an ugly night from the field. He started the night by missing his first 15 shots and didn’t make a basket until the 7:34 mark of the fourth quarter. In lieu of an insufficient adjective, a few tweets illustrate how bad of a shooting performance it was:

Of course, that level of futility bought out the jokes.

Even with those porous numbers, the Rockets hung around for the entirety of the game, thanks in part to Utah guard Donovan Mitchell‘s low-key awful second half and the Jazz’s fruitless evening from 3-point range. Though it’s tempting to frame this through the prism of Houston winning in spite of Harden’s efforts, they needed every bit of his 22 points and 10 assists to pull this one out.

His shooting struggles notwithstanding, the Rockets were +4 when Harden was on the floor and +12 in the second half. While cumulative plus/minus has its limitations, it paints a fuller picture of his impact on the team in this case.

It helps account for the way the defense contorts when Harden has the ball in his hands, which in turn created opportunities for players like Eric Gordon, P.J. Tucker and Clint Capela. It also puts his six steals, most of which came thanks to some lazy Utah passes, into a context that highlights Harden’s contributions in this game outside of scoring.

And when the time came for Harden to knock down some shots, he answered the bell. The most important of Harden’s three makes came after Mitchell — who went 3-for-14 and 1-for-6 from 3 after intermission — put Capela on skates and drained a triple with 1:33 left in regulation to cut the Houston lead to 96-95.

On the next possession, Harden sidestepped Ricky Rubio — who basically dared Harden to drive with his right hand — and drilled a 3 to push the lead back to four.

Despite that and the two free throws he knocked down with 42.4 seconds left, the Jazz had ample opportunities to capitalize on Harden’s awful night. If Utah shoots 33 percent from deep instead of the 29.3 percent they shot, or if Mitchell makes a couple more shots and/or free throws, this is probably a 2-1 series instead of the insurmountable 3-0 deficit the Jazz now face.

As a team that smothers opponents with its defense, Utah had Houston right where it wanted the visitors: in a mucky, chippy dogfight. The plan almost worked, as the Jazz gimmicked Harden into one of the worst shooting outings in postseason history. But even with those substandard numbers, Harden did more than enough to help his team survive.