Natural Born Scorer

A Look At James Harden Historic Scoring Run

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Caysean Hayes, Staff Writer

On Sunday, January 13, in a game against the Orlando Magic, the Houston Rockets MVP guard James Harden scored 38 points. That game Harden tied Los Angeles Lakers future hall of fame guard Kobe Bryant for most consecutive 30 point games in National Basketball Association (NBA) history with 16 games. Throughout this stretch, Harden has been averaging 40.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 9.7 assists.

The streak started December 13, in a game against the Lakers. In that game, Harden had 50 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists. That game the Rockets won by 15 points, and that historic game gave Harden his 4th 50 point triple-double in his career that’s more than any other player in NBA history. He went on to score more than 30 points in every game after that until tying the record. Harden wasn’t just content with tying the record, the next game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Harden broke the record by dropping 38 points in the first half. In that game harden ended up with 57 points. That was Harden’s season-high in scoring. Somehow two nights later Harden tops that performance; in a game against the Brooklyn Nets Harden Dropped his new season high 58 points. This was Harden’s third 50 point game during this stretch and his fourth 50 point game of the season.

These games aren’t just meaningless outburst of points as the Rockets have a 13-5 record over the streak. This streak has propelled Houston past than anyone would think they would go this season. At the beginning of the season the Rockets we’re struggling as they started out the season 1-5 and outside of the playoff hunt. Now the because of this performance from James Harden, the Rockets are in the 5th seed of the playoffs with a record of 26-20.

Harden is leading the league in points by averaging 35.4 points and during the streak, he’s averaging 42.2 points.