The New York Knicks found themselves on the receiving end of James Harden’s historic 53-point, 16-rebound, 17-assist effort on Saturday night, losing the game, 122-129.
It was a mesmerizing display of game-long brilliance mostly because of how effortless Harden achieved the monster line. As usual, the projected West All-Star starter did a lot of damage from the charity stripe, converting on 16 of his whopping 18 total attempts.
In a somewhat shady commentary, Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek shared his observation on how Harden gets his way to the line.
“What he does, he grabs with his left arm. He has the ball in his right hand and he wraps his left arm around your hand and pulls up to grab the ball. There’s a couple guys in the league that do the same move. To me, that’s an offensive foul. You can’t grab another guy’s arm. But he does it fast and quick and it’s hard to see. But he gets the calls. He’s a great player.”
Some may call it as superstar treatment, while others conclude that this is simply James Harden being James Harden. He is such an adept and crafty player with a high basketball IQ on offense that is oftentimes overshadowed by his defensive lapses.
But that’s not taking away anything from the Houston Rockets’ leader as his strong play has given Russell Westbrook a serious challenge for the Most Valuable Player award.
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