James Harden’s remarkable streak of 30-point games came to an end yesterday, but he couldn’t have cared less. It didn’t matter that he was just a bucket short of extending the run to 33 games, second in National Basketball Association history to the 65 put up by offensive anomaly Wilt Chamberlain in another era. As far as he was concerned, the fact that the Rockets won was most important. A setback in familiar confines against the supposedly hapless Hawks would have put a crimp on their plan to claim homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
If anything, Harden coming close to keeping the streak alive was no small feat. When he reported back to the scorer’s table with a little over nine minutes left in the fourth quarter, he had only 17 points to his name. And because the Rockets were then merely up by four, he couldn’t very well operate outside the system in order to get the additional 13. Still, he had ample opportunity to do so given his ball-dominant role. And while he did manage to put up 11, he could have had more; he missed two three-point tries, a layup, and a free throw, not to mention committed two turnovers.
Perhaps Harden would have been less errant had he not played through a neck injury. His trademark step back jumper was certainly off; he wound up with zero made treys off 10 attempts en route to a seven-of-21 clip on aggregate. In any case, the Rockets prevailed, leading to his positive outlook in the aftermath. Not so fortunate was another James who suited up some 500 miles northeast. When the night was done, the four-time Most Valuable Player christened LeBron endured yet another disappointing loss against opponents the Lakers were pegged to overcome handily.
James proved less than efficient during his time on the court as well, but, unlike Harden, he did not have the benefit of victory to consider his outing a success, anyway. More likely, he was pondering failure of a greater magnitude. After all, he, too, had streaks on the line; not since the turn of the decade had he missed the Finals, and not since 2005 had he missed the postseason altogether. True, the Lakers still have 22 games to make up ground on the Clippers and Kings in order to book the last slot to the playoffs. Then again, they’re nowhere near to displaying the form they require to complete the task.
At the start of the season, James preached patience and understanding of the Lakers’ position as not-quite-ready-for-primetime players. He has also gone on record to argue that he no longer needs to prove anything. Make no mistake, though; he doesn’t care for all the losing. Nobody does, really, but, of course, nobody else has his legacy to protect. Not Harden, not Chamberlain (Joel Embiid’s protestations notwithstanding), and not his younger self.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994.
