NBA basketball is back again after a corona break and it seems that the league's big stars are addicted to games.
In a match where several heavy names lined up impressive statistics, James Harden was the worst with 49 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
"The Beard" opened very strong with 23 points in the first period where he was one hundred percent. At the same time, he rose to become Houston's second best scorer of all time, only behind legendary Hakeem Olajuwon, who led the Rockets to two NBA titles in 1994 and 1995.
At half time, the score was 85-75, already more than the final result in some matches, but the players were far from finished there.
"An incredible sequence"Houston was seven points behind with 45 seconds left of regular time. According to ESPN, it has only happened twice in 713 attempts that teams that were behind by seven or more points in the last minute have turned around and won the match.
Dallas led 139-136 with 5.2 seconds left when James Harden was fouled and awarded two free throws. Harden put the first shot and missed the second, after which Robert Covington took care of the return and equalized with 3.3 seconds left.
Had Harden's penalty kick gone in, the Rockets would still have been down by one point.
- An absolutely incredible sequence. It was not my intention to miss the penalty throw, I tried to put it, but it turned out to be an absolutely perfect miss, Harden says afterwards.
Dallas star Luka Doncic missed a crucial shot in the closing seconds and the match went into extra time. There, the Rockets pulled the longest straw and won by 153-149.
A tough loss for the Mavericks where Kristaps Porzingis had 39 points and 16 rebounds while Luka Doncic was noted for a triple-double with 28 points, 13 rebounds and ten assists.
Houston's Russell Westbrook, who previously tested positive for the corona virus and joined the NBA bubble late, was noted for 31 points.
- It was tough to sit at home for 18-19 days without being able to train. I felt a little lethargic tonight but it will get better, he says.
CLIP: NBA stars manifested in the restart (July 31, 2020)
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Several messages against social injustice appeared when the NBA restarted. Photo: Bildbyrån / SVT