NEW YORK: Five games into his tenure with the Brooklyn Nets, James Harden begins to rally his pass or score the Rubik’s Cube.
After scoring just 10 points in three quarters Monday against the Miami Heat, Harden added 10 points in the final quarter and finished with 20 points and eight assists in the Nets ’98-85 victory. Trying to solve his puzzle, Harden said, is “the best part” of his early weeks in Brooklyn.
“I was in a role for eight years, controlling the ball, dominating the ball,” Harden said, referring to his time in Houston with the Rockets. “It’s a different experience for me now, but it’s still fantastic.”
Harden came out of his lowest performance in a calendar year. On Saturday, he had just 12 points in the first of the team’s two games against the Heat, but the Nets found solace in their ease. Arriving at Monday’s game, Harden had ended up with double-digit assists in every game he had played at Brooklyn.
Kevin Durant, who finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds, said Harden’s performance against Miami was the “perfect balance” to score and facilitate. “Looks like he’s just moved to a new school and he’s trying to figure out the curriculum,” Durant said. “And it will take a while to figure out who your teammates are, what your rotations in the game are, when to be aggressive, when to score, when to pass.”
He continued: “As a scorer and central point of your offense, sometimes the balance between scoring and passing, you have to figure it out every night.”
Steve Nash said he is confident that with more time to build chemistry and improve its shape, Harden will continue to improve by striking that balance.
“I’m lucky to be able to do more than one thing on the basketball court,” Harden said. “So it’s fun. Like I said before, it’s a game within the game, you have to pick and choose when to be aggressive, when to get your shooters to leave, when to let KD and Kyrie get going.”