Jordan had 40 straight games of 27+ in 1986-87, which (unless you think 30 is imbued with magical powers) is more impressively consistent than 17 straight of 30+, imo. But yeah, still an amazing run by the Beardo.
And the NYT had a story today about the superstar who's the worst volume 3 pt. shooter in the NBA: Russell Westbrook. He's only hitting 23% of them this year. Just imagine if OKC had traded Westbrook and kept Harden. (BTW, Trae Young is second worst from 3, at like 29%).
Nuggs and Warriors just combined for 89 points in the first quarter.
51-38 Warriors. 10 threes in the quarter for the Ws. Jamal Murray closes it with a halfcourt heave that you knew was going in.
51-38 Warriors. 10 threes in the quarter for the Ws. Jamal Murray closes it with a halfcourt heave that you knew was going in.
10-14 from three. Nobody is missing. Durant has 17. Klay has 13 and Curry has 12.
Denver isn't going away. They are down 17 but if you told me a team scored 51 points in the first quarter, I would expect a 20-handle lead in the second. Murray is tied with Klay for top scorer in this game at 18 points.
OKC, of the best D in the NBA, somehow gave up 142 to the Hawks (90 points combined in the 2nd and 4th). This whole season has been bizarre.
When the first 5 games of tonight’s schedule are finished there will be at least 4 teams with over 130 points.
Through the first 4 games tonight the average margin of victory is 32.5
Through the first 4 games tonight the average margin of victory is 32.5
I'd rather staple my ear to a T bus than listen to Fisher and Thomas talk about anything for five minutes.
I kind of like Players Only to a degree, some of the guys like McHale are fun to listen to for a quarter or two, but when it devolves into old guys just complaining about how the game has changed (which is what always happens) it becomes unbearable.
Harden goes for 58 but the lowly, awful, crappy Nets beat the Rockets in OT 145-142. I mean this Nets team barely beat the terrible Celtics
Only other player in league history with B2B 55-point games...…...is Wilt Chamberlain.
Nets (16 for 36) and Rockets (23 for SEVENTY!) combine for 106 three point attempts (NBA record).
Holy shite, Nets win!!!!! Is that the best Nets win since they moved to Brooklyn ... or in the past 10 years?
Harden: 58 pts (16-34 fg, 5-19 3fg, 21-23 3fg), 10 reb, 6 ast.
Jarrett Allen: 20 pts, 24 boards. Not having Capela around must have been fun for him.
Harden: 58 pts (16-34 fg, 5-19 3fg, 21-23 3fg), 10 reb, 6 ast.
Jarrett Allen: 20 pts, 24 boards. Not having Capela around must have been fun for him.
Gerald Green and Austin Rivers had the 2nd and 3rd most FGA for the Rockets tonight. All 15 of Green's attempts were 3-pointers.
He is literally doing everything for this team with all their injuries. There is a reason he is being called a gunner and its not because he wants to take every shot. He needs to. He had 10 assists - not really a gunner in the Jamal Crawford sense...
Maybe he should gun a little less. The Rockets are 4-6 when he takes more than 30 field goal attempts in a game, and 21-13 when he doesn't. Tonight, he was 5/19 (26.3%) from 3. Gordon, Nunnally, Green, Tucker and Rivers combined to go 18/45 (40%)
I wonder how that correlates with his free throw attempts. I.e., is he shooting fewer field goal attempts in wins because he is putting the ball up fewer times, or because he’s getting calls and thus those aren’t showing up as shot attempts.
Chris Paul played in exactly 1 of those 10 games and Eric Gordon missed a bunch of them too, so just looking at their record is a little deceptive, they're the 2nd and 3rd leading shot takers on the team.
Gordon is back, and Paul should be back in 10 days. I'm loving this scoring run but we need wins, man. Need home court for the playoffs. We should have a more balanced offense really soon, and Harden's scoring will drop to more normal levels (32ppg? lol).
Normally I like data based arguments but the reason Harden is shooting so much is because Paul, and Capela are out and Gordon is just back from injury so he is on limited minutes. There really aren't any other scoring options for Houston aside from role players - I like PJ Tucker, Danuel House and even Gerald Green but if you need to depend on them to create their own shots, you are "proper f*cked" to quote Snatch. Over the last 19 games the Rockets are 14-5 and of the games where Harden took 30 or more FGA, they are 5-4.
Yea, his fga are definitely a proxy for other guys being injured. Cause and effect being switched up over there dean of the babe Ruth.
The “Up by four, foul a guy shooting a layup for and and-one, guys misses free throw, allow offensive rebound, foul other guy making a layup for a second and-one” at the end of overtime wasn’t a great sequence.
Sure, he's definitely shooting more due to the injuries. But they are 9-4 since Paul went down with his latest injury, including the loss tonight, and all 4 of those losses were games in which Harden took over 30 shots. In the 9 wins, he only took 30 shots in 4 of the 9 games. I haven't gone back to look at the other losses (although I imagine his 1/17 from deep the other night against Orlando is another example), but tonight, I think an argument could be made that he didn't have it, and probably shouldn't have taken 19 3's, especially when his teammates were shooting at a very respectable clip.
Not really, as his fga have gone up especially recently, so have his free throw attempts. He had 34 field goal attempts tonight, and he also took 23 free throws, so the reality is he probably took over 40 shots tonight from the field. He averages 11.3 fta/game. During the games where has 30fga, these are his free throw attempts, I think he's averaging a little over 13fta per game when he shoots over 30fga, but in the most recent stretch this past week, he's had a ton of free throw attepts.
23 (L)
18 (W)
16 (L)
11 (L)
7 (L)
9 (W)
7 (W)
9 (W)
16 (W)
15 (L)
12 (L)
The one fun thing about Harden is that he's putting up such ridiculous numbers that there are a million different ways to look at them.
Perhaps the losses are less about Harden taking those shots and more about the other team forcing him to take that many shots by shutting down the other players. I mean, if the offense breaks down, and the option is a Harden ISO step back, or Gerald Green or Rivers trying to create something for themselves, I know what I am choosing .
Sure 5/19 3s is bad, but he had a TS% of 66% for the game and the rest of the team had a TS% of 55%, so hard to say he should be deferring more than he is. Even if you take out the free throws (which are at least somewhat a function of his ability to take and make 3s) and just look at eFG% he was slightly better than the rest of the team.
Yeah, trying to make a case for the Rockets (significantly) worse offensive players to do more while Harden does less doesn’t pass any smell test when his production and efficiency is off the charts.
Since we speak so much of the Celtics roster not fitting together as a well-oiled machine.......how the heck is Boogie going to fit in and keep up with the pace that the Warriors like to play with?
James Harden has scored 57 or more points in 2 consecutive games.
ZERO of his made shots in those two games were assisted.
Not a single one
More to the point, Boogie is a huge guy coming back from a tough lower extremity injury. As we have seen time and again - and we can use George and Hayward as examples - players coming back from severe leg injuries struggle mightily playing themselves into NBA shape and then re-learning what they can and cannot do. Its very non-linear. I wouldn't be surprised if Boogie looks great on Friday due to the adrenaline rush of playing in his first game in ages and then is up and really down with a bunch of DNPs mixed in.
The Warriors don't need Cousins to do much, of course, but anyone hoping for a 27 point, 10 boards per 36 line from him is likely to be disappointed.
Curry has 35 through three in a tied game. He is 10-17. From three....think about that for a minute. Seven of them came during his 23 point third quarter.
Meanwhile, the Pelicans/Warriors just combined to hit their 42nd 3 pointer of the night (84 attempts) to set the record for most combined 3's in a game.