Houston Rockets: 2018-19 player grades for James Harden
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Highlights
Although the Rockets’ season would come to an unfortunate close at the hands of the defending world champions for the fourth time in the last five seasons, James Harden would still find a way to provide Clutch City faithful with an array of magnificent performances that will likely come to stand the test of time in the record books.
Despite getting off to a slow start at the beginning of the season, Harden would manage to heat up just in time prior to the opening of the new year. He lit up LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers for 50 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds in a 126-111 win that would mark one of nine 50-point games on the season for The Beard.
At a time in which the Rockets were sitting outside the playoff picture and besieged by injuries to Chris Paul, Clint Capela and Eric Gordon, Harden would seek to place himself at the center of the NBA’s macrocosm — scoring 30 points or more in 32 consecutive outings — and averaging a total of 41.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game.
In a back-and-forth, tightly-contested outing where his team trailed by as many as 20 points on the road against the juggernaut known as the Warriors, Harden would make a grand explosion in his first game of 2019.
He hit several big shots in regulation and overtime including a fallaway game-winning triple over the outstretched arms of Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. He wound up with 44-point, 15-assist and 10-rebound night to help Houston rally back and secure a thrilling 135-134 win on Jan. 3.
Despite taking the league by storm with his nightly scoring tear, Harden would find a way to save his biggest performance for one of basketball’s most majestic stages.
Just days after becoming the first player to post 55 points or more in back-to-back games since Wilt Chamberlain in 1962, Harden erupted once again by putting on yet another offensive clinic, posting a career-high 61 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Rockets to a 114-110 triumph against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 23.
Within 72 hours of exploding for 57 points against the Memphis Grizzlies for the second time in the regular season, Harden would attempt to exorcise his playoff misfortunes of postseason’s past at home against the San Antonio Spurs, by torching the Rockets’ interstate rivals with a 19-for-34 shooting performance from the field.
In conjunction with a 14-point performance within the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, Harden helped lead a Houston charge that would help him finish the game with the most points ever individually scored against a Gregg Popovich-coached team with 61 in a 111-105 win against San Antonio on Mar. 22.