James Harden showed out at the right time during Wednesday's 102-93 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. The Beard took over in the fourth quarter, scoring 17 points of the Houston Rockets' last 22 points in the final 5:52 of regulation.
Rockets teammate Austin Rivers saw a real-life superhero put on the cape as Harden finished the night with a 47-point performance:
“Yeah, he was incredible tonight,” Rivers said after the win, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic. “Especially versus a defensively sound team like they are, and with the guys they have on the floor that can defend. The fact that he was still able to do that was remarkable. We had a lot of guys open, who just weren’t making shots tonight.
“It’s just one of those nights that where I couldn’t make a shot, Russ couldn’t make a shot, Ben (McLemore) couldn’t make a shot, nobody could hit a shot, and James (Harden) just took it over himself. So sometimes you need, you know, I don’t know that saying, you know Superman sometimes has to put on his cape or whatever, that’s kind of what he did tonight it felt like.”
Asked if that was a historic performance, Harden turned it down nonchalantly:
“Nah,” said Harden. “I just did what I do.”
Harden entered the fourth quarter with 30 points and was 0-for-3 with a turnover before the last six minutes of the game. Seeing that partner Russell Westbrook and the rest of his teammates struggled, Harden did what he does best and dominated the ball the rest of the way, which eventually earned the Rockets the victory.
Houston has resorted to this tactic numerous times to come out on top, but every hero needs a sidekick and a team to help him fight for justice, so that supporting cast has to show up for the Rockets at some point or another.
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