James Harden scores 51 to lead Rockets over Kings, Cousins
The Houston Rockets are having a tough time, at least for a team with one of the four best records in the NBA. With starting guard and defensive heartbeat Patrick Beverley out for the season and center Dwight Howard just getting back into form following two months on the bench, a team with reasonable expectations of a championship has had to recalibrate itself with just two weeks left until the start of the postseason. The Rockets are in an unenviable position despite their excellent record.
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On the other hand, Houston is also finding out that their MVP candidate is absolutely worthy of that status. All-Star scorer James Harden has only reinforced his status as one of the two or three most essential offensive players in the league by keeping up his scoring form and doing even more to animate the Rockets attack. Harden proved his worth yet again in Wednesday’s 115-111 home win over the Sacramento Kings, scoring a career-high 51 points on an ultra-efficient 16-of-25 shooting from the field and 8-of-9 from deep to join Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving as the only players with multiple 50-point games this season. Take a look at his amazing night:
Harden wasn’t the only star to come up with a huge statistical game. Fellow All-Star and Kings center DeMarcus Cousins put up one of the most complete games for a big man in recent history with 24 points (11-of-25 FG), 21 rebounds, 10 assists, six blocks, and three steals in 39 minutes.As noted by ESPN on Twitter, no player had put up 20 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists, and five blocks since Chris Webber did so for the Kings against the New Jersey Nets way back in November 1999.
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Yet it was Harden who made the biggest impact in the game, lifting up a Rockets team in need of a top performance. The Kings are not a playoff contenders, but there one of the few lottery participants that has not given up as head coach George Karl tries to reform the team in advance of next season. In contrast to Harden’s previous 50-point game, he was not able to rely on regular trips to the free-throw line to get his points. Instead, Harden got supremely hot from outside and took shots when and where available. It was a reminder that he is not just a scoring automaton — his brilliance requires a certain amount of creativity and ingenuity.
At 51-24, the Rockets are now tied with the Memphis Grizzlies for the No. 2 seed in the West, although they would currently lose any tiebreakers due to their inferior record within the Southwest Division. It’s tough to bet on the Rockets with Beverley gone and Howard not especially dependable, but Harden is proving that it would be wrong to give up hope. He’s often enough by himself.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
