James Harden, the flamboyant Houston leader, set himself a new personal best with 61 points scored Wednesday against the New York Knicks, beaten 114-110 in their legendary Madison Square Garden. For several weeks now, Harden has been on his planet and never comes down again.
Wilt Chamberlain exceeded . Against the Knicks, he went on for the 21st consecutive game at 30 points and over, never seen in the NBA since the legendary Wilt Chamberlain in the 1960s. He crossed the threshold of 50 points for the fifth time this season, improved his personal best by one point (60 pts on January 31, 2018) and failed a record-high (62) record length at Madison Square Garden, established in 2014 by former teammate Carmelo Anthony.
A new career-high of 61 points
Set a Rockets record franchise for points in a game
Raised his 30-point consecutive game streak to 21
Tee Kobe for most points scored by visiting player at MSG pic.twitter.com/DX5CUVMt8a
"The 'Garden' is a historic hall for the NBA, its audience is one of the best in the Championship, it's pretty cool to have offered a show this (Wednesday) night," said Harden , well started to keep the trophy of MVP (best player of the NBA) won in June 2018.
Faced with a lot of absences, "I have no choice". In his last five games, "The Beard" is running at an incredible 52.2 points! In the absence of Chris Paul and Clint Capela, injured, the best scorer in the championship carries his team at arm's length and spends a lot of time on the floor (37.3 minutes per game). "We have a lot of absentees, I have no choice, all I need to do to win, I will, the coach knows he can count on me," he insisted, sweeping any idea of fatigue.
A three points and a dunk to prevail on the wire. Despite Harden's XXL statistics (17 out of 38 in shooting, 22 out of 25 in free throws, 15 rebounds and five steals), Houston was close to letting out the victory against a broken opponent and penultimate opponent of the conference. East (10 v-36 d). Worn by Allonzo Trier (31 pts), the Knicks even took the lead in the last minute thanks to a huge blunder Rockets. But Eric Gordon crucified them with a three-pointer basket 12 seconds from the mermaid, then failed the last chance attack, before serving Harden who concluded his prolific evening with a dunk.
61 PTS | 15 REB
James Harden is the first player to record at least 60 PTS / 15 REB in a game since Shaquille O'Neal on March 6, 2000! # Rocketspic.twitter.com / 5cvdU3LvxB
A busy time to mark the Harden phenomenon, Frank Ntilikina finished the match with zero points (0 on 5 shot), two rebounds, six assists but a +/- (index that measures its impact on his team) of +8 .