Thanks to James Harden's “heroics,” the Houston Rockets ended up surviving a vicious Oklahoma City Thunder run to end their series on a 104-102 Game 7 win.
In a crucial moment of the game, Harden made a huge play and went full dodgeball when Luguentz Dort tried to throw the ball off him as he was running out of bounds. The former MVP showed incredible athletic ability on his second jump after initially blocking Dort's three.
Unfortunately, Dort was caught stepping out of bounds before unsuccessfully throwing the ball towards the Rockets superstar.
Still, the Twitterverse went nuts on Harden and his savvy body-swerve.
James Harden with the greatest dodgeball move in history #OKCvsHOU pic.twitter.com/kNcg3GCgzu
— Sam Ro 📈 (@SamRo) September 3, 2020
James Harden’s unbelievable skills in grade school dodge ball pay off for him in the final seconds of game seven. pic.twitter.com/VNoFDKiIwW
— Tim Ring (@timringTV) September 3, 2020
This is a great play by James Harden, but it’s also mainly self-preservation considering the, uh, painful area where Lou Dort was aiming to throw the ball at as hard as humanly possible. pic.twitter.com/TWBjxuYRBo
— Jeff Nowak (@Jeff_Nowak) September 3, 2020
James Harden during dodgeball practice 🤣 pic.twitter.com/OF8ysrIatc
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) September 3, 2020




Let's be real, James Harden did seem to channel his inner White Goodman in that play.
@JHarden13 right now 😭😂🔥🙌🏾 #rocketsvsthunder pic.twitter.com/kDjGrEkUfu
— Tajh Bellow (@TajhBellow) September 3, 2020
Game 7 was an instant classic and was really anybody's ball game, but the Rockets ended up with enough stops to ultimately edge out the Thunder in a hard-fought series.
The 2019-20 scoring champ had a rather quiet night with just 17 points, but he still found a way to be effective for his team. Dort, who had a career night, was on his way to give the Thunder the lead when Harden made a huge defensive stop which resulted to the aforementioned “dodgeball.” It was Harden's third block of the night, and he also added two steals to salvage his poor shooting night.
After an extended series, the Rockets just have two days to regroup and recover as they are set to face the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers in the second round on Friday. Harden and the rest of his squad would need a ton of yoga in the next 48 hours to be physically and mentally ready for LeBron James and his Purple and Gold.