James Harden yet again made a strong bid for the NBA’s MVP award, dropping a career-high 50 points to bolster his already-impressive resume.
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The Houston Rockets defeated the Denver Nuggets 118-108 for their third straight win and Harden was a dominant force, adding 10 rebounds and four assists to his strong scoring total.
“Obviously, he’s probably the MVP this year in the NBA,” Denver’s Randy Foye said of Harden. “He did an unbelievable job of creating and also getting to the free throw line.”
Though the shooting guard hit just 12-of-27 from the field, he was unstoppable at drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line – where he has lived all season – converting 22-of-25.
“It just looked so easy,” Trevor Ariza said of his team-mate. “It was like he just woke up and walked out there and had 50. That’s how easily he scored.”
Harden said: “Man, my teammates are amazing. Trevor noticed what was going on in the game. He dribbled right at me, I just said, ‘I’m going to let it fly,’ and it went in.”
Early in the game, the Rockets lost Terrence Jones to a partially collapsed lung as the forward spent the night in the hospital. Having lost another starter in Jones with centre Dwight Howard still out with a knee injury, Harden did what he’s done all season and put the team on his shoulders.
The 25-year-old’s performance tied him with Russell Westbrook for seven 40-point games this season – best in the league. He finally broke through to score 50, having previously had the most career 40-point games for any player never to reach the half-century.
Rockets beat Nuggets, 118-108. James Harden drops 50 Pts in first 50+ point game by a Rocket since Hakeem in 1996. pic.twitter.com/TwXTHZT5eQ
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) March 20, 2015
“It’s really hard to get 50 points in a game and is not something many people can do,” Houston coach Kevin McHale said. “It was just one of those nights where he had good energy and he was driving hard.”
Harden’s resume for MVP is as good as anyone’s, if not better. He’s almost always on the court, having played in all but one game and leading the NBA in total minutes following the win over the Nuggets.
His value to the Rockets is arguably greater than any other player to their respective teams as he leads the league in several advanced statistics, including VORP (value over replacement player) at 6.6, WAR (wins above replacement) at 16.60 and win shares at 13.7.
VORP is an estimate of the points per 100 team possessions a player contributes above a replacementlevel (-2.0) player, translated to an average team.
WAR is the estimated number of team wins attributed to each player compared to a replacement-level player. Win shares are the estimated number of wins contributed by a player.
The reason Harden features at the top of those stats is the Rockets’ winning pace, despite the injuries.
Houston have remained one of the best teams in the Western Conference all season and are now threatening to take the second seed from Memphis.
