Harden hits 36 in win vs. Warriors
Harden propels decisive surge to stop what’s left of once bitter rival
Eric Paschall, filled with the confidence that comes with his run as the new, if temporary, star of the Warriors, finished a drive through a James Harden foul and turned to the Warriors’ bench to share an opinion.
“He’s food!” Paschal shouted. Rookie mistake. Paschall had given the severely shorthanded Warriors a four-point lead with 5½ minutes left in the first half Wednesday night, but he also seemed to have poked the bear. Either that or Harden just decided it was time to finally floor it.
Harden said he did not hear what Paschal said, but he either scored or set up all 23 Rockets points in the remainder of the first half, breaking them free from another rocky start and sending them past what is left of the Warriors 129-112 in the Rockets’ first blowout win of the season.
“I didn’t know that,” Harden
said when told of Paschal’s comment. He did say things turned around from that moment on.
“We tightened it up defensively,” Harden said. “That allowed us to get buckets in transition, get easy 3s, stuff like that. We’re more than capable. When we lock in defensively, we can go on crazy runs.”
With 5½ minutes left in the first half, the Rockets — who went into the game 27th in field goal shooting and 3-point shooting percentages — had made 5 of 16 3s, just 16 of 38 shots. Harden was just 2 of 9, missing all four of his 3-pointers.
Harden scored 18 of his 24 first-half points in that 5½-minute burst that opened an 11-point halftime lead.
With 36 points on Wednesday, Harden has the most points through eight games to start a season (292) since Michael Jordan put up 302 to begin the 1988-89 season.
In the past two games, he has made 13 3-pointers on 40.6 percent shooting after needing the first six games of the season to collect 17 3s, making 21.5 percent of his attempts.
“We had some really good spurts,” said Harden, who added 13 assists, three blocked shots and three steals. “We didn’t get off to a good start, gave them confidence. Make or miss shots, we’ve got to make sure we continue to tune up our defense, which we will.”
There were signs of progress with that on Wednesday, though it was difficult to tell against the makeshift version of the Warriors that looked like a bunch that normally would be finishing up routs.
The Warriors were without guard Stephen Curry, forward Draymond Green, center Kevon Looney, guard Klay Thompson, guard D’Angelo Russell, guard Jacob Evans III and forward Alen Smailagi. For the third consecutive game, they started three rookies and did not play anyone who was with them when the Warriors left Toyota Center last spring with a second-round triumph.
They were, however, able to give the Rockets a good workout, which they have seemed to need through their ragged start to the season as much as they needed their first blowout win.
“We started shooting better when we started playing harder and that’s usually the case,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “At a certain point, we turned it on and played good defense. If we would have done that the whole game, we could have probably been in control earlier. We’re working on it. We’re just not in great shape right now. We will get there.
“It’s funny because I just told (Clint Capela) that I was kind of mad at him the whole time, but well, I’m also kind of responsible. I was saving their legs in the preseason so that near the end of the year we’ll be fresher. I can’t also be crazy just because they’re not quite in shape. We’re working on it.”
D’Antoni said the frequent defensive breakdowns have come because of the lack of conditioning. He said he has not been able to make adjustments because the Rockets have not defended with enough energy to judge the schemes they are using.
But after Capela had a seasonhigh 13 rebounds on Monday, he had 16 on Wednesday with a season-high six blocked shots and 19 points.
P.J. Tucker had season highs with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Danuel House Jr. had a seasonhigh 17 points.
Even having Russell Westbrook limp off the floor after a collision with Paschal with nearly eight minutes left was not considered worthy of concern.
“Nothing happened, bro,” Westbrook said. “Nothing happened.”
If nothing else, the Rockets seemed one blowout win closer to where they need to be.