James Harden continues to roll; Houston Rockets keep winning – Beat Hawks 109-102: NBA Recap
When the Houston Rockets acquired James Harden from the Oklahoma City Thunder in a sensational trade nearly six days ago, they envisioned a franchise player in him.
And that is exactly what the ‘bearded one’ is turning out to be.
A night after hammering 37 points in his Rockets debut against the Detroit Pistons, the explosive shooting guard pounded a career-high 45 points on a 14-of-19 shooting from the floor and 15-of-17 from the charity stripe.
"He's pretty good, I'd say," an ecstatic Rockets coach Kevin McHale said after the game. "He just kept battling and playing."
Jeremy Lin was terrific as well. The point guard nearly scored a triple-double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
Lin was also in awe of his back court partner;
"He frees everybody up," Lin said. "He knows what he's doing. We're thankful that he showed up."
Second year forward Marcus Morris added a career-high 17 points from the bench for the Rockets.
The Rockets were huge on the paint. They out-rebounded the Hawks 58-36 on the boards, 23-7 on the offensive end alone. Omer Asik led them on that front with a career high 19 rebounds.
The Hawks looked good despite the defeat. Their off season acquisition Lou Williams scored a team-high 22 points in his debut while Josh Smith had 18-points and 10 rebounds. They led early, and after Harden got the Rockets on a roll, muscled their way back from a 16 point deficit to re-take the lead early in the fourth quarter. Hawks were however helpless in front of a late assault from Harden, who scored 14 of Houston's final 19 points to seal the win.
"We were just trying to put together as many stops as we could," Williams said. "We battled our way back into the game to even get it to that point."
Harden’s final act game when the game was tied at 92 apiece. He sank down two consecutive baskets at that point, including a three point play to make it 97-92. The Rockets were never in trouble after that and seven ice cold free throws by Harden down the stretch sealed the game.
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