After a four-day forced quarantine that followed the weeks of his desire to be traded dominating the headlines, Houston Rockets superstar James Harden had a performance Saturday night that reminded people why is a perennial candidate for MVP.
It just wasn’t enough to lead an extremely short Houston team, which lost six players due to positive COVID-19 testing and contact tracking, until a win in the Rockets ’late-season opener.
Harden scored 44 points and 17 assists as he played 43 minutes in the 128-126 overtime loss to host Portland Trail Blazers. The only flaw in Harden’s line on the scoreboard was his four turnovers, including one in the final seconds that sealed the loss, when Blazers striker Robert Covington stole a pass after Harden drove. the lane and try to make a dish for a teammate.
“He was fine,” Harden said of his performance, which included shooting 12 of 22 from the ground and 6 of 13 from 3-point range. “There are too many changes. But other than that, the first game playing 40 minutes, I feel like my conditioning could be better, obviously, but it was pretty solid. I think we let them get away from us.”
The Rockets ’season opener scheduled for Wednesday was postponed because Houston didn’t have all eight players available. The NBA ruled Harden unavailable for that game because of a violation of league safety and health protocols by attending a private party Monday, which resulted in Harden being fined $ 50,000.
The Rockets made the trip to Oregon with just nine players. New starting guard John Wall and the Rockets ’top three bench players – Eric Gordon, DeMarcus Cousins and Ben McLemore – are among the Houston players currently in quarantine.
“I’m proud of the way we fight,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “Obviously we have some things we need to clean up. But overall, I’m so proud of this group and how they fought in these circumstances.”
Harden removed any doubt that he would compete on the court as the Rockets ’head office patiently explores the commercial market in search of a package that represents fair value to a historically elite player in the midst of the season.
Harden dominated as a dealer: he handed out seven of his assists to focus on Christian Wood, who scored 31 points and 13 rebounds in his Rockets debut, while engaging in a duel with Blazers shootout CJ McCollum. As Harden said, McCollum “caught fire” after a slow start, also finishing with 44 points, in the 17 of 30 shot.
McCollum hit a 3 with 6.9 seconds left in overtime that turned out to be the winner when Harden failed to generate a shot on final possession. Harden had gotten a pair of 3s contests: the first to tie the score, the second to take the lead, in the Rockets’ two previous possessions.
“James is really good,” McCollum said. “Regardless of what James does in his spare time, James is really good at basketball. Just like he’s really good.”