James Harden says it all with a glance after Rockets beat Clips for 4th straight W
After opening the season with a trio of ice-cold shooting performances that sparked concerns that a Houston Rockets club considered by many as a title contender could struggle much more than anticipated, James Harden urged everyone to take a deep, cleansing breath.
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“We haven’t had a rhythm yet, from training camp or preseason at all,” he said after Houston’s third-straight 20-point loss to open the season, according to Israel Gutierrez of ESPN.com. “We have guys in and out the lineup, bigs, guards, whatever. We’ll find a rhythm, we’ll catch a rhythm. We just have to continue to play hard, continue to stick with it, continue to have positive energy. We’ve lost three in a row, but we’re not really worried about it.”
True to his word, Harden promptly caught fire, hanging 37 points on his former club, the Oklahoma City Thunder, to notch Houston’s first win of the season. He’s followed that up with 28 (albeit on 6-for-22 shooting) in an overtime victory over the Orlando Magic and a pair of monster outings over the weekend, with 43 points on 23 shots, 13 assists and six rebounds to beat the Sacramento Kings:
… and 46 points on 26 shots to topple the Los Angeles Clippers, whom Houston ousted in the 2015 Western Conference semifinals:
It’s not all beer and Skittles — Harden’s still shooting just 37.7 percent from the floor and 24 percent from the 3-point line, well below his career marks, and turning the ball over 4.6 times per 36 minutes, well above his career high, and key perimeter contributors Ty Lawson, Trevor Ariza and Corey Brewer continue to struggle with their own shots. All of a sudden, though, Houston’s won four straight to get on the right side of .500. Center Dwight Howard’s asserting himself on both ends of the floor, putting up his first regular-season game of 20 points and 20 rebounds in nearly two years against the Clippers.
Reinforcements are expected to come later this week with the returns of point guard Patrick Beverley, who has missed the last two games with a concussion, and power forward Terrence Jones, who has missed the last six games with a cut on his right eyelid. During the win streak, the Rockets’ offense has gotten back up to snuff, scoring 108.8 points per 100 possessions (third-best in the league in that span) and outscoring the opposition by just under five points-per-100, a strong efficiency differential.
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The driving force of that improvement, of course, has been Harden, who’s now averaging a shade under 30 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals per game this season. The All-NBA First-Team shooting guard sure seems to have locked into his groove after those early-season scuffles, needing only a glance to tell ROOT Sports’ Matt Bullard just how comfortable he’s feeling right now:
The slide was electric; the side-eye was ecstatic; the Beard is balling; all’s well in Houston. What a difference a week makes.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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