Refreshing the four-day enforced quarantine, weeks after his desire to trade dominated headlines, Houston Rockets superstar James Hard performed a demonstration Saturday night reminding people why he is a perennial MVP candidate.
Just stun was not enough to keep the team in extremely short hands, to win the Rockets’ delayed season opener opener, missing six players due to positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing.
Harden had 44 points and 17 assists as the host Portland Trail Blazers played 43 minutes in a 128-126 overtime loss. The only fault in Harden’s line in the scoreboard was her four turnovers, including a last-second defeat, when Blazers forward Robert Cuwington stole the pass after Harden tried to carve down the lane and catch a teammate.
“It was all right,” Harden said of his performance, which included shooting 12-of-22 from the floor and 6-of-13 from the 3-point range. “A lot of turnover. But other than that, playing the first game 40-something minutes, I think my conditioning could have been 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 at least eight players are not available in Houston. The NBA ruled that Harden was unavailable for the game for violating the league’s health and safety protocols by attending a private indoor party on Monday, which resulted in Harden being fined $ 50,000.
The Rockets traveled to Oregon with only nine players. New starting point guard John Wall and the Rockets’ three best bench players – Eric Gordon, DeMarcus Cousin and Ben McLemore – are currently among the Houston players.
“I’m proud of the way we fought,” said Rockets coach Stephen Silas. “We need to clear up some things. But overall, I’m proud of this group and how they fought in these circumstances.”
Harden dispelled the suspicion that he would compete on the court as the Rockets ’front office fee patiently explores the trade market in search of a package that represents the right value for its prime histor historian.
Harden dominated as a distributor – ditching his seven assists to put Christian Wood at the center, who had 31 points and 13 rebounds in the Rockets’ entry – while the Blazers were involved in a scoring duel with shooting guard CJ McCullum. As Harden said, McCollum “caught fire” after a slow start, but it ended with 44 points in 17-of-30 shooting.
McCollum hit with over.9 seconds left. Hit overtime left, Harden proved the winner when he failed to produce a shot on the final possession. Hard hit a pair of competitive step-back 3s – to build the first score, the second-ranked – on the Rockets’ previous two assets.
“James is really good,” McCollum said. “Regardless of what James does in his spare time, James is really good at basketball. Like, he’s really good.”
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