Yes, the Houston Rockets lost their third game in a row on Monday. And yes, one of those losses were to the lowly Cavaliers, while another was to the dysfunctional (but somehow kinda rolling) Washington Wizards.
James Harden’s heroics are masking some big Rockets problems
Houston has now lost three in a row, despite Harden’s 54-point game in D.C. This is not good.
Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Before we talk more about those issues, let’s take a step back (no pun intended) and appreciate the performance that James Harden put on.
Harden absolutely lit the Wizards up Monday night. He scored 54 points on 17-of-32 shooting from the field and 7-of-15 shooting from three-point range. He also added 13 dimes to his tally on the night.
It was that assist total that separated his 50-point game from several others in NBA history.
Harden is in a class of his own
The Beard’s 54-point game against Washington was the 10th 50-plus-point game of his career, but it was also the fifth time he scored 50 points and dished out at least 10 assists. Harden is the only player in NBA history with more than three 50-10 games.
Russell Westbrook and Nate “Tiny” Archibald have each recorded three 50/10 games; LeBron James, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain each have two; and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Rick Barry, Richie Guerin, Michael Jordan, Stephon Marbury, Tony Parker, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West have each accomplished the feat once.
This was also the fourth time Harden has recorded at least 13 assists in a 50-point game. He holds the record for most assists in a 50-point game (17), and it’s been 45 years since any other player recorded a 50/13 game.
One more thing: This is also Harden’s fifth consecutive season with a 50-point game. Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history with a longer streak, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
“I’m a Wildcatter. Wildcatters are fearless. You’ll go drill and get a dry hole and you move on to the next one. You keep drilling holes until you run out of money or get rich. The people who have come here decided to take on that mentality, in Texas and in Houston. We’re Texans. We will do whatever it takes to succeed.”
But the Rockets still look lost
Houston blew a 17-point first quarter lead to the Wizards. Harden and Eric Gordon combined for 90 points. Bradley Beal literally could not imagine a situation where the Wizards overcame those odds to secure the victory. Then, they did.
Harden said his Rockets let their guard down, then let the Wizards get comfortable. Was that also the case when he went for 40 points and 13 assists (albeit with nine turnovers) in Houston’s disappointing loss to Cleveland.
The Rockets miss Chris Paul, who’s missed the last two games with a sore leg. He’ll be back soon enough, and Houston will be much better with him on the floor, as they always are.
But one year after finishing with the NBA’s best record and one game away from upsetting the Golden State Warriors for a trip to the NBA Finals, Houston finds itself battling to get back above .500. Jettisoning Carmelo Anthony has done little to improve their situation.
This team is too talented not to turn things around to some degree, but the offseason decisions they made to sacrifice defense in favor of offense are head-scratchers in retrospect. Houston could really use Trevor Ariza and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute now, with their defense having dropped to 25th in the league after it finished seventh last season. Their offensive firepower, on the other hand, is being nullified by a league-wide scoring boon. The iso ball is fun when it works, but gets old very fast when it doesn’t.
Harden’s 54 and 13 is fun, but 65 and 17 is more more fun. The Rockets will be better when CP3 returns, but they need to figure this thing out on the fly before it’s too late.
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