The plan for Houston Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni in Sunday’s scrimmage versus Memphis was to remove superstar guard James Harden midway through the fourth quarter.
The NBA’s three-time defending scoring champion had other ideas.
Harden played until barely more than a minute was left in Sunday’s game against the Grizzlies, and he orchestrated a commanding 40-17 fourth quarter by the Rockets in the 119-104 victory (box score).
“I tried to take James [Harden] out with about four minutes to go, but he wouldn’t have any of it,” D’Antoni said postgame. “He wanted to play and win. That’s the type of person he is. He’s such a competitor.”
In the end, Harden led the Rockets with 31 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds. When combined with hot bench shooting from Jeff Green and Ben McLemore, it was enough for Houston to even its scrimmage record after two games at the NBA “bubble” complex in Florida. The Rockets have their third and final scrimmage set for Tuesday night versus Boston.
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Harden accumulated those numbers in 35 game minutes, and he believes that total will help him be ready for regular-season games — which resume for the Rockets on Friday night versus Dallas.
“I just don’t want to play 20 minutes,” Harden said postgame. “In reality, when the eight games come, I’ll be playing 35-36 minutes… it’s going to be a huge shock. I want to prepare myself so when next week comes, I’m ready and it’s not a big shock on my legs or body.”
Harden currently leads the Rockets and the NBA with a 34.3 points per game scoring average, which represents just the third time in over 30 years that a player has averaged at least 34 points in a season. (The other two were Harden’s 36.1 last season and Kobe Bryant’s 35.4 in 2005-06.)
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Assuming he keeps his scoring average above 34 following the eight regular-season games of the upcoming restart, Harden will become just the third player in league history to average at least 34 points in two different seasons, joining Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain.
Over his eight seasons to date in Houston, Harden has earned All-Star honors in all of them while leading his Rockets to the playoffs. The future Hall of Famer was the NBA’s 2017-18 MVP and a three-time MVP runner-up, and he appears poised for another top-three MVP finish this season.
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