NBA scores 2017: James Harden has an even stronger MVP candidacy than 2 years ago

Harden scored another 50-point triple-double, this time with 51 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists.

Jan 28, 2017, 1:00 PM UTC

Two years ago, James Harden narrowly missed out on being the league’s MVP. A close race tipped towards Stephen Curry late in the year, and Harden settled for a well-deserved second-place finish. It’s incredible to think that Harden was nearly an MVP, though. It’s not that he wasn’t incredible that season, either, but that he’s somehow even better so far this year.

On Friday, Harden dropped his second 50-point triple-double in a month. Back on New Year’s Eve, Harden scored 53 points with 16 rebounds and 17 assists. Twenty-eight days later against Philadelphia, Harden rattled off 51 points with 13 rebounds and 13 more assists. To put that in perspective, it had been 15,258 days since the last time anyone in the NBA recorded a 50-point triple-double, and now Harden has two.

Harden’s a clear MVP candidate once again, and this season, it really feels like he’s playing better in almost every category. You can find a couple quibbles -- he’s shooting even more threes while hitting several percentage points worse -- but overall, Harden has improved in nearly every area. His move to point guard and the Rockets’ shrewd offseason dealings has unlocked him as a passer, with Harden averaging nearly 12 assists, best in the league.

His rebounding, sitting at 8.3 per game, is also as good as its ever been. It’s helped by the Rockets’ slightly increased tempo (even more than the years prior) and Houston’s big men clearly room for him to collect loose balls, but it makes sense, too. Harden with the ball in his hands is better for the Rockets than him not having it, and a Harden defensive rebound is the quickest way to make that happen. Why bother with outlet passes? Harden’s rebounds turn into lightning quick fast breaks and open threes often before the defense has even turned back around.

You saw it all on Friday. This wasn’t the Rockets beating up on the hapless 76ers we’ve come to known over the past few seasons; since the start of the year, Philadelphia has gone 9-4 with the best defense per 100 possessions in the league. Led by Harden -- who again, since this can’t be said enough, scored 51 points with 13 rebounds and 13 assists -- the Rockets rattled off 123 points on 52 percent shooting with 12 made threes. They didn’t even have the team’s leading three-point shooter, Eric Gordon, whose back locked up before the game.

It’s too early to start calling Harden the MVP favorite, which is a testament to how absurd this year is, not a slight on The Beard. As long as his former teammate Russell Westbrook is still averaging a triple-double with the Thunder while leading the league in scoring, Harden may still be in second place. Both players are worthy candidates, and we’ll take the entire class period before finishing up this test. This answer may not be clear until the final few games of the season.

Still, this is the NBA we’re dealing with. Harden has objectively improved his candidacy from where it was two seasons ago. He’s playing an even more strenuous position, increasing his total possessions with only a minor uptick in turnovers (15.9 turnover percentage to 20.3) as a downside. Harden is as much the cause for the NBA’s most surprising team as their offseason additions, and it certainly wouldn’t be possible without him.

He may not be the MVP yet, but his second 50-point triple double just adds to a compelling case in his favor.

The Bulls are still not in a good way at all

Rajon Rondo flatly ripped the Bulls’ two leading veterans, Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler, in an Instagram post on Thursday. Rondo didn’t like Wade and Butler throwing the rest of the team under the bus, and he was right! But if Chicago wanted a performance that would help them move past the circling drama, Friday’s wasn’t even close to what they wanted.

In response to Wade and Butler’s comments, overwhelmed Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg benched Butler and Wade. Both played terribly off the bench, but Butler in particularly was atrocious, playing as bad as he ever has in a Bulls jersey. He shot 1-of-13 from the field while finishing with a miserable minus-23 in a 12-point loss to the Miami Heat. Here’s Butler slumping to the bench seemingly without Hoiberg’s permission.

And here’s Wade taking several eternities to return on defense.

Asked if he thought the benching sent the message he hoped, Hoiberg responded with, “We’ll see.” That’s not a man who’s confident in his team figuring this out and turning things around. The Bulls are still clinging to the East’s No. 8 seed, but it feels like window dressing for a roster that’s otherwise imploding in spectacular fashion.

The Hornets are scaring us, and not in a good way

Charlotte has lost 10 of their last 14 games, starting on New Year’s Eve and quickly snowballing from there. The Hornets were swept on an early five-game January road trip, followed it up with a trio of wins but has since lost three more. Losses against the Warriors and the surging Wizards make sense. Falling to New York on Friday, especially with the Knicks’ heel turn back to a drama-filled trainwreck and Carmelo Anthony’s 8-of-26 shooting, feels inexcusable for a wanna-be playoff team.

Kemba Walker is the Hornets’ first All-Star since 2010, and he showed up with 31 points, 10 rebounds and five assists on Friday. But as Walker rises to his best season yet, the Hornets keep sinking. An upcoming road trip that includes Utah and Golden State isn’t necessarily going to solve that.

Friday’s top play

He’s not an All-Star, but Joel Embiid is — how do we say it? — really f***ing good. Here he is with a chase-down block that turned into him dribbling the length of the court for a layup on the other end.