Houston Rockets superstar James Harden has been unstoppable on the offensive end as of late, scoring at least 30 points in 21 consecutive games. During this stretch, he has notched several statistical achievements.
One of those feats was his streak of 263 markers that were scored without an assist, meaning he did not need his teammates to pass him the ball in order to score. He had all those points mostly through isolation plays or step-back 3-pointers, which just proves that he's one of the best iso players in the league.
However, NBA statisticians might want to take another look at this ‘streak' by Harden, as it doesn't appear to be true.
Here's a video of some of the highlights during the Rockets' game against the Philadelphia 76ers a couple of days ago.
https://youtu.be/r48TRaH92Lw
In the 3:58 mark of the video, you will see P.J. Tucker pass the ball to Harden, who made a 3-pointer a few seconds later.
Why was Tucker not credited for an assist?
It is unclear as to why this was not considered as an assist, but one of the possible explanations is this; there are some instances wherein assists are only counted if the player scores one or two seconds before receiving the pass from his teammate. In Harden's case, when Tucker passed him the ball, he held it for at least three seconds before taking and making the shot.
Now it could have gone either way, so if league officials saw that play as an unassisted basket, then people can just leave it at that.
Follow Us
Subscribe