Harden rolls on
Harden scores 11 in last 2:32 to up streak
James Harden scores 31 points — his 30th consecutive 30-point game — to lead the Rockets to a 120-104 win over the Dallas Mavericks at Toyota Center.
The win had finally been secured, locked down with a late flurry.
But with minutes left Monday night, the large numbers in the middle of the scoreboard were no longer the point.
James Harden’s streak of games scoring 30 points was on the line and every finger crossed in Toyota Center was to bring luck to the remainder of the chase.
The Mavericks were trapping the ball out of Harden’s hands, which if it were not the strategy from the opening tip, would have been like walking a hitless Joe DiMaggio in the eighth inning. Harden had reached the final three minutes still 10 points short of extending his streak. So as the Rockets finished a 120-104 run past the Mavericks, he tended to unfinished business.
He had by then made just 3 of 14 3-pointers. He was increasingly giving the ball up. His sore left shoulder had flattened his shot into misses.
The streak, however, would not end, with the roars rising, the MVP chants swelling as each shot fell in a stunning run to 31 points.
“I didn’t think there was (any) way,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “He was amazing. But I think his shoulder is bothering him.”
Harden had returned to the floor with 6½ minutes left and the Rockets’ lead at 15. The Mavericks would close to within nine, but with a Chris Paul 3-pointer with three minutes left, the Rockets needed just one final push.
“I was worried about winning,” Harden said. “They were making shots. They were coming back, cut the lead to … nine points. I just wanted to get the proper shots.”
He had missed a 3-pointer on his first possession back on the floor and then moved the ball on each of the next three possessions, showing no interest in a streak as much as to avoid another come-from-ahead loss.
Finally, with 2½ minutes left, Harden hit a step-back 3-pointer. Moments later, he hit another, this time from 29 feet for a 15-point lead with 1:57 remain-
ing, and the chase was on.
He turned a steal into a drive to a pair of free throws to give him 28 points. With less than a minute left, Harden was trapped again, passing to Paul. Paul would have none of it, firing a pass back to Harden.
“For sure, for sure,” Paul said. “He had what, 28? We were up.”
Harden had no choice, launching from 30 feet and nailing his last shot with 52.9 seconds remaining, giving him 31 points and 30 consecutive games scoring at least 30, one shy of Wilt Chamberlain’s secondlongest run and 35 from Chamberlain’s record.
“Just playing our game the right way,” Harden said of giving up the ball with the streak on the line. “They were doubling, putting two on the ball. They got off the ball. We made the right plays. Got good shots. Pretty simple.”
But more than get just making his run while taking only four shots in the final 5:44, Harden did it while struggling with shoulder soreness from his encounter with the Thunder’s Steven Adams on Saturday.
“I was getting treatment after the last game, all day yesterday, today,” Harden said. “Just been icing it and doing the proper work I need to do to go out and play. I couldn’t get the lift I usually get on my shot.”
With his 31 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five steals, Harden has reached 30 points, five assists and five rebounds three times this season, the most in the NBA in a season since Paul did it three times in 2007-08.
Paul had 17 points and 11 assists and moved past Gary Payton to eighth in career assists, though he mostly joked about that.
“It's cool,” Paul said. “It just always reminds me how many games I missed. I came into this league, I was like ‘I'm going to catch John Stockton in assists and steals.' Ain't nobody catching him. I don't know who used to do the stats in Utah."
Still, Harden’s run of 11 points in the final 2:32 to keep the streak alive — the second time in the 30 games he reached 30 on his final shot — dominated the attention, providing the sort of drama to the buzzer the Rockets could enjoy.
“He’s done this how many games so far?” said Gerald Green, who had 19 points in 22 minutes to continue his fivegame run of sharpshooting. “I don’t really know what else to say. It’s like we just expect now. We shouldn’t expect it, but we expect it.”