James Hardenwas diagnosed with a left calf contusion after Houston’s Christmas Day matchup against the Thunder, and it wasn’t clear if the league’s reigning Most Valuable Player would be ready to go for Thursday’s game against Boston.
James Harden is amazing, but we’re getting worried about his minutes
Harden has single handedly carried Houston out of its early slump, but that burden will cost him and them come playoff time.
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Then, he walked onto the court, and lit the Celtics up.
Harden finished with yet another sensational stat line in another Houston win. He had 45 points — his second consecutive 40-point game and fourth in the month of December — on 9-of-18 shooting from three-point range. He scored 17 of those points in the first quarter, didn’t score at all in the second, then ran up 28 more points in the second half. Harden hit every Celtics defender with a flurry of crossover step-back triples. It was video game stuff, in real life.
Harden’s play has been the reason the Rockets have crawled out of their early slump. Houston started the season 11-14 and made a flurry of moves to address their issues. They banished Carmelo Anthony to the shadow realm and re-hired their old defensive guru, Jeff Bzdelik, as lead assistant coach. They moved two-way contract signee Danuel House into the rotation and even signed another shooting guard in Austin Rivers.
None of those moves have caused this rise. What moved the needle was Harden’s production.
The Beard is averaging 35.5 points per game in December and has led the Rockets to eight wins in their last nine games. Along the way, Harden’s vaulted himself back into the MVP conversation, as he’s quick to remind everyone.
But at what cost?
Harden has been balling out, but he’s racking up miles along the way. He entered Thursday night 11th in the NBA with 1,100 total minutes played, but due to an early-season hamstring injury, he’s also played in 30 of Houston’s 33 games leading into Thursday’s matchup against the Celtics. That made him one of only two players in the NBA to play at least 1,000 minutes in 30 or fewer games. The other was Zach LaVine in Chicago.
Last season, we saw Harden play at a level that earned him unquestionable MVP honors, but he didn’t have enough in the tank to push the Rockets over Golden State after Chris Paul went down with a calf injury in Game 5. The season before, Harden ran out of gas against San Antonio, playing terribly to close a Game 5 loss and even worse in a Game 6 elimination.
Harden can go 48 minutes in a game if he needs to, but the cumulative wear and tear of playing so many minutes while carrying such a heavy offensive load shows up in the playoffs. Harden entered Thursday averaging 36.7 minutes per game, the third-most in the NBA behind Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday. He played 39 more minutes against the Celtics.
“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.”
At this point, Harden’s minutes are necessary. Until Paul returns from his hamstring injury, The Beard is responsible for all of Houston’s offense while he’s on the floor. He leads the NBA in usage rate at 37.7. The next closest player is Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid at 32.5.
But at some point, those minutes add up, the fatigue coalesces, and the wear begins to tear. Harden played 2,551 minutes last season, 2,947 the season prior, 3,125 the year before that, and 2,981 the year before that. He’s on pace to play 2,829 minutes this season.
Mike D’Antoni says Houston can count on Harden to play 40 minutes, and while that’s valiant, it also erodes their ultimate goals for the season. Now that Houston has recovered from its slow start Harden’s minutes should be monitored like a pitcher on the mound. If he loses his legs in the regular season, it won’t help Houston in the playoffs.
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