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Brooklyn Nets superstar Kyrie Irving is extremely happy for his teammate James Harden, who was back to his old self against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. The Beard aggressively looked for his shot all game and led Brooklyn to a 132-128 road win in overtime at State Farm Arena.
Post-match, Uncle Drew had some high praises for the one-time MVP.
“That’s who he is. We just want him to come into this group and not think so much about fitting in, but just be who he is,” Kyrie Irving said of James Harden, per Associated Press (via ESPN).
Some pundits have been critical of Harden for his uncharacteristic passiveness in the Nets' last couple of games. While his play continues to be solid, some believe he was deferring way too much to Irving and Kevin Durant, so much so that the former Rockets superstar was sacrificing his own shots just to make his superstar teammates more involved. Harden put up back-to-back 30-point games in his first two outings with Brooklyn, but he have failed to score more than 21 points again before Wednesday's game.
Early on, it appeared that the 31-year-old guard was off to another lackluster scoring night after contributing just two points in the first 12 minutes of play. Harden waxed hot in the ensuing quarter, dropping 16 points. Those 18 first-half points were the most he has scored at the half since switching to the Nets.
Harden finished with 31 points on 9-for-20 shooting from the field and 5-for-9 from deep in 46 minutes. Even more impressive, he still managed to set his teammates up with a game-best 15 assists.
Irving was the recipient of some of those dimes, as he pitched in 26 points. Meanwhile, Durant poured in 32 to put away the pesky Hawks and give the Nets three straight Ws.
