Harden’s stats find him in elite company
When Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said last month that James Harden was the best offensive player he had seen, sparking debate and some derision, he had games like Sunday’s performance against the Timberwolves in mind.
Few have had numbers to compare. In the past 30 years, only four other players have scored at least 44 points with at least eight assists in a playoff win, according to basketballreference. Harden joined LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson (twice) and Michael Jordan (four times) with those numbers, initially driving the offense with passes to Clint Capela and then by driving to the rim and hitting 3s.
“What he did last night, are you kidding me?” D’Antoni said Monday. “I know I said (March 20) he was the best offensive player I’ve ever seen. There was discussion about that. But if you watched the game, he was pretty good. I don’t know how you get better than that. He has so many moves and so many things that he does, how do you guard him? Not only that, he’s getting Clint involved, even the other shooters.
“We didn’t make (many 3s), so probably in his mind, ‘OK, I’ll shoot a little more.’ I don’t know, but he has command of the game in everything he does. He was awesome last night.”
Harden’s 44 points were one shy of his career playoff high set in the 2015 Western Conference finals against the Warriors.
“I think if you have that aggressive mindset,” Harden said, “good things will happen.”
Forward Anderson nearing return
The Rockets’ short-handed bench could be close to having at least one reinforcement with forward Ryan Anderson potentially returning from his sprained ankle Wednesday.
Anderson missed the final four games of the regular season and the first game against the Timberwolves on Sunday.
“The last I heard is he had a good workout before the game,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “He has a real good shot (to play on) Wednesday and definitely on Saturday. Now, it’s going (to be about) how can we work him back in because he hasn’t played in two weeks. It’s not like, ‘Oh yeah Ryan. Go ahead. It doesn’t mean a lot, this game.’ ”
Anderson’s 38.6 percent shooting on 3s led the Rockets this season. He made 50 percent of his 3s against the Timberwolves, averaging 12 points in the four regular-season meetings.
With Anderson out Sunday, Joe Johnson and Trevor Ariza played at power forwards with the second unit and Nene played 11 minutes as a backup center. P.J. Tucker also played 2½ minutes at center.
“Again, it’s one more shooter that you would have on the floor,” D’Antoni said. “If a couple guys aren’t going well, we have another guy to go to. It gives us a lot better chance.”