It was seven years ago today when future MVP James Harden lifted the Houston Rockets to a key playoff victory with his own “flu game.”
The eighth-seeded Rockets were on the road and facing elimination with a 3-1 series deficit entering Game 5 of their first-round series in Oklahoma City. The Thunder were the West’s No. 1 playoff seed and the defending Western Conference champions from the 2011-12 season.
Harden left that day’s shootaround early with flu-like symptoms, and backcourt mate Jeremy Lin didn’t play at all due to a bruised chest.
But Harden wasn’t going to miss an elimination game against the Thunder, who had traded him to Houston just before the 2012-13 season began. “There’s no way some little flu bug is going to keep him from playing in an elimination game,” forward Chandler Parsons said pregame.
Harden’s performance proved Parsons correct. He scored a team-high 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting (62.5%), including an astonshing 7-of-9 showing (77.8%) on 3-pointers. Harden also grabbed eight rebounds and had a game-high plus/minus figure of +16 in his 42 minutes, leading the Rockets to a 107-100 victory on May 1, 2013 (box score).
The Rockets did ultimately lose the series to Kevin Durant’s Thunder in Game 6. But that May 2013 showing in Oklahoma City sent a clear signal that better days were coming fast for Harden and the Rockets.
Prior to Harden’s arrival, Houston had not even qualified for the NBA playoffs since the 2008-09 season.
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