CONFIDENCE IS A 2-WAY STREET
Harden’s teammates know he can take control of a game at any time
Someday, when someone digs into the Rockets’ record book and finds James Harden’s name next to the 22 points he scored in a quarter Monday, the fact that might have made the feat most remarkable, perhaps even revealing, won’t be with the numbers.
Someone likely will break that record. He might. But when there is a need to look up the most points a Rockets player has scored in a postseason quarter, it will likely be forgotten the way the night began. That might be the most extraordinary part.
Harden began the game missing his first seven shots. He missed open 3s. He missed layups. He missed a pull-up jumper.
Harden was more than 18 minutes into the game before he made a shot. But he finished a drive, sank a 3, and when he returned for the second half, he added one more night spent breaking records to a season full of them.
Yet, even after that rocky start, no one was surprised by what followed.
“We never really worry about what James got going on,” Rockets forward Trevor Ariza said. “We know if he starts slow or whatever, he’s going to pick it up. That’s what he does. He averaged 30 throughout the year. Him scoring the basketball is never, ever, ever an issue because we know he is going to do it.
“We're not talking about just a regular basketball player. We're talking about a phenomenon. Him scoring the basketball, that's what he does. He wakes up and scores the basketball."
The NBA’s leading scorer this season, Harden can slump. He was 2-of-18 in the Rockets’ Game 2 win, though the blowout might have cost some intensity along the way that night. On Monday, when Harden returned to the floor in the second quarter before he had a made a shot, the Timberwolves held a five-point lead with a 2-2 series in sight.
As he often has said, Harden insisted he was in no way discouraged, much less rattled, by his slow start. But he has grown into the sort of scorer who will remain certain of his gifts and comfortable in his role.
“These last few years are probably when I’ve been most comfortable,” he said. “I worked hard, I always put the time in, but the trust and having the guys around me and the coaching staff to encourage me to go out there
and not worry about anything but being me is probably the most confidence that I’ve had since I’ve been here.”
The Timberwolves’ aggressive defense on the ball, led by Jimmy Butler and Andrew Wiggins, seemed to have Harden off-balance in the first half. By the third quarter, he made it look like just another week night along the way.
He stared down Karl-Anthony Towns, crossed him over, and blasted past him to the rim. He drove Wiggins into the lane to hit a jumper in the paint. He tossed in a floater over Towns and then drove at him to score. When he added 3-pointers over Butler, Harden had made seven of 10 third-quarter shots without seeming to force anything.
“He’s just so good that nothing (surprises),” Rockets forward Ryan Anderson said. “I didn’t even know he scored 22 points in that third quarter. It’s just sort of effortless. There’s so many times playing on this team for some reason that just feels natural or it’s not this crazy anomaly type of a thing. When you look back on it or you talk about it, it’s pretty amazing.
“That’s just how special this team is and how special he is as a player. He’s capable of doing that all the time, which is crazy.”
Craziest still might be it seemed routine. After averaging 30.4 points in the regular season, Harden is averaging 30.3 in the first four games of the postseason. But if Harden is viewed as one of the players with the most to prove in the playoffs, not only as the presumptive MVP but because of his uninspired Game 6 exit last season, having Monday’s performance on a night that started so poorly was viewed at least by the Rockets as far more definitive.
“He’s demonstrated this a thousand times,” D’Antoni said. “One time he doesn’t have a great game, one time we all messed up and didn’t play well against San Antonio, all of a sudden, he’s got this label, I guess. But he’s demonstrated so many times he bounces back from a bad game, a bad quarter, a bad half.
“He’s, like I said, the best offensive player I’ve ever seen. He’s got everything. It’s just a matter of time. He just keeps playing.”
Harden has often said he is unconcerned about his reputation and Monday’s outburst, as part of the Rockets’ 50-point third quarter, was not about that, anyway. But when he did something no Rockets player had before, and did it on a night that began without a hint of what was to come, it was all the more impressive because of what it might have indicated beyond an ability to score. Perhaps more telling, the Rockets were not at all surprised.
“We never worry about him,” Ariza said. “We know he can get hot at any time.”