James Harden of the Houston Rockets is leading the NBA in scoring this season. But on Monday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the former MVP produced an ugly stat line of 29 points on 9-of-29 shooting. That included a hideous 1-of-17 from beyond the three-point line.

After the game, Harden was seen getting some shots up. Likely hoping that he would be able to shoot better than 5.9 percent in his next game:

This had to be a particularly gutting loss for the Rockets. They had led by 17 points to start the 4th quarter, and then they coughed up the lead thanks to being outscored 41-to-20 points in the final frame by the Thunder.

According to Basketball Reference, there has only been one game prior to Monday’s in which a player attempted 17 three-pointers and only made one of them. That player? You guessed it, it was James Harden last year against the Orlando Magic in January – a game the Rockets also lost.

Rockets-Thunder is something of a grudge match for multiple players involved. Especially for Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook, as those two players were traded for each other in the offseason.

Westbrook notched his typical triple-double in Monday’s game. But CP3 had the last laugh as he logged 28 points on 9-of-18 shooting. He also was a game-high +17 in on/off rating. His team also won the tightly contested game.

The Thunder’s victory puts them only a few games back of the Rockets for the sixth seed in the West. So Harden’s diligence at improvement couldn’t come at a better time.


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