HARDEN SCORES CAREER-HIGH 56 IN WIN.
Team connects on 23 3-pointers as offense takes command early
Of all the measures of dominance, with more points than James Harden had ever scored a good place to start, Harden came upon another. He reached the point that the way he tore apart one of the NBA’s elite defenses seemed unfair. The Rockets could tell the night would be special early. Mike D’Antoni, who had unleashed Harden in ways only indicated as achievable before last season, saw “the bounce in his step.” Trevor Ariza, Harden’s teammate for longer than anyone, saw it “from the jump.” Eric Gordon, who was nearly as accurate, said he could tell in the first quarter “it’s going to be a crazy night.”
Harden insisted he was just being aggressive, no different from his usual mindset. But rarely has he been as unstoppable, until he reached the point that the Utah Jazz, one of the NBA’s elite defensive teams, had no chance.
When he was through, Harden had poured in a career-high 56 points, taking the Rockets to a 137-110 romp of the Jazz on Sunday. As in the ultimate measure of dominance, he made the matchup look unfair.
“I don’t think there’s any defense for him period,” Ariza said. “But when he’s on, I mean, what can you do? Two people can’t guard him when he’s on like that.”
When Harden made all eight of his shots in the first quarter, four from beyond the 3-point line, it was over. The Jazz had to step out defensively to challenge him 24 feet from the basket and beyond. From there, he ripped through them.
By the final seconds of the third quarter, when Harden had tipped in a miss and then flew past for one more layup, he had 54 points and the Rockets held a 30-point lead. He remained in the game with Luc Mbah a Moute out with a bruised knee, and added another drive. He took a seat with 7½ minutes remaining, having made 19 of 25 shots to come within one point of the Rockets’ franchise record, adding 13 assists.
It was his sixth 50-point game, but the first time anyone had made 70 percent of his shots while scoring at least 56 points since Jazz great Karl Malone had 61 points on 80 percent shooting in 1990. It was the first time anyone had scored 56 points on 25 or fewer shots since Michael Jordan went 16-of-25 for 58 in 1987.
It was all set up, in typical Rockets fashion and appropriately for a night in which the Rockets hit 23 3-pointers, by Harden’s marksmanship from the 3-point line.
“I was just shooting,” Harden said. “It opens up everything, my drives. That’s when the help has to come over and the assists become available. Try to keep working on my shot, keep working on my finishing.”
Along the way, Harden passed Moses Malone for fifth in scoring in franchise history. The bucket hardly seemed fitting for the occasion or in any other way memorable, but it was typical of the way he took apart one of the NBA’s best defensive teams.
The Jazz excel with Rudy Gobert the league’s best rim protector owning the lane, allowing their defenders to be ultra aggressive at the 3-point line. The opening was in between so when Harden drove hard to 14 feet to pull up for his jumper, he seemed able to score in any way he chose.
“We were just in attack mode,” he said. “We knew how good they are defensively coming into the game so we wanted to be aggressive … and take our shots when we had them. And when we didn’t have them, get off the ball, make a quick decision.
“I just got (to) be aggressive. Be aggressive and good things happen.”
But Harden had hinted at a coming monster game. He had 21 in the first half in Atlanta on Friday, knocked down a 3 and forced the Hawks to trap him off the ball. He made six of 11 3s that night, then took off Sunday.
“You can tell just the bounce in the step and his 3s,” D’Antoni said. “In the last two games, he’s been just going straight up and down; he’s pure. You can say, ‘This is probably in.’ He’s not drifting or anything. It just means he’s strong. his bounce getting around people was just ridiculous tonight.”
It was not fair, which was as much of a measure of dominance as 56 points.