James Harden destroyed the Utah Jazz on Sunday night.
In 35 minutes of action, The Beard dropped 56 points and 13 assists on a scintillating 19-of-25 shooting. He was 7-of-8 from downtown and 11-of-12 at the charity stripe. His 56-burger, it turns out, left him one point shy of the Houston Rockets’ scoring record, which was set by Calvin Murphy in 1978 when he piled on 57.
Harden doesn’t care, though.
As he told reporters afterward, per ESPN.com’s Tim MacMahon:
“We won, right?” Harden said after being informed by a reporter that he was only one point shy of Murphy’s mark.
I give his nonchalance a 10 out of 10, in large because he was downplaying the significance of his performance before even receiving that information (again, via MacMahon):
“I’ve just got to be aggressive. Be aggressive, good things happen, not just for myself but for my team. I was still able to dish off a couple of assists and get guys involved still. I’ve just got to have that mindset every single game.”
The Rockets do need Harden to be aggressive. Chris Paul is still on the sidelines nursing a knee injury, so the playmaking and shot creation behind him is pretty flimsy. The Rockets have plus-minus superhero Eric Gordon, but he isn’t instilling raw fear into defense. They need Harden to be the player he was last season, at least for now.
And perhaps beyond.
No one quite knows when Paul will come back. Most expect it to be in the next two weeks. Even when he comes back, though, Houston will need Harden to be aggressive. Paul will still be going through his acclimation period, only this time, the rest of the team won’t be. They’ll have enjoyed a month-plus of figuring things out. Paul, in that sense, will be behind the eight-ball.
If and when Paul returns to All-Star form, Harden will have already built himself another nice MVP argument. Both stars were supposed to take votes away from one another—think Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry—but Harden being thrust into solo duty once again gives him anecdotal support that’s become all too important in these MVP proceedings.
