The start to the 2018-2019 season has not been kind to the Houston Rockets, as the team entered Monday night’s face-off against the Utah Jazz with a 14-14 record. On the heels of a 65-win season and a near-miss against the Golden State Warriors, Houston has every right to be disappointed but the Rockets picked up a 102-97 win over Utah in their 29th game of the season and James Harden provided the fireworks.
Harden exploded for 47 points (on 14 of 31 shooting), six rebounds, five assists and five steals in 41 minutes and, after the 48-minute battle was over, his most famous teammate and backcourt partner provided incredible praise.
Some great quotes in the game rewrite to be posted in a bit. Such as Chris Paul on Harden: "“He’s the best offensive player I’ve ever seen. He can drive. He can shoot. He’s got ball-handling. It’s going to be a tough night for whoever it is. I don’t care what you’re doing.”
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) December 18, 2018
The declaration of anyone as the “best offensive player I’ve ever seen” would be noteworthy in a league that has employed so many legends over the years. Beyond the jarring nature of the statement, though, this particular notion comes from a future Hall of Fame point guard in Chris Paul and that brings even more weight.
Before his heroics against the Jazz, Harden was sporting a very Harden-like statistical line of 30.9 points, 8.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game in 25 appearances and it says quite a bit that his showing could be seen as “normal” when compared to his previous baseline. Still, that is now the reality for Harden and it might take something like the declaration made by Paul to remind some of his incredible offensive capability.
Harden, Paul and the Rockets still have a long way to go to reach their (very) lofty goals from the preseason but, while it would be easy to nitpick Paul’s sentiment, everyone can agree that Harden is a transcendent offensive force.
