James Harden scored a season-high 32 points on Wednesday to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 115-107 victory over the New York Knicks, offering a throwback performance that answered questions about whether the 37-year-old still had his scoring touch.
The three-time NBA scoring champion had averaged just 15.3 points through 11 games this season. He was shooting only 34.6% from the field, which would easily be the worst mark of his career, and the Cavaliers were 5-6 in their first full season since acquiring him from the Clippers.
Harden was finishing 9-for-14 from the field and 5-for-7 from three-point range. His tiebreaking three with 4:21 remaining gave Cleveland the lead for good.
“It’s my 18th year, so my name is James Harden, and I used to score a lot of points. Now it’s like, all right, cool,” Harden said. “Still score points, but try to find out other ways to impact the game as well. And I think that’s what people probably don’t understand.”
Adjusting to a new role
Harden is still working out how to play alongside fellow star Donovan Mitchell. Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson insists the team does not need the Harden from his Houston days, when he averaged 30.4, 36.1 and 34.3 points across three straight seasons, and said the guard is comfortable with that.
Harden said the criticism did not bother him. He noted that he had been criticised in his scoring years for putting up numbers without winning.
“I was averaging 36 and 35, whatever the case may be, people had something to say about that. ‘You can’t win like that.’ So then I averaged 20-something, it’s like, ‘Can’t win like that,'” Harden said.
“So I think the most important thing for me, like, people are going to talk. So I just focus on myself, things I need to do and try to get in really good shape and learn my teammates and learn how to play a different brand of basketball, because I’m not the same fast person that I was like five or six years ago.”
Signs of the old form
Atkinson said he had seen flashes of the old Harden earlier in the season, even though Harden had managed just five baskets and six turnovers in the two games before Wednesday. This time, the former NBA MVP sustained the form for an entire game.
Atkinson believes Madison Square Garden may have helped spark the performance. Harden shares the arena’s opponent scoring record of 61 points with Kobe Bryant. Atkinson described Harden as a “global superstar” and said players of that calibre tend to love playing in New York.
The Cavaliers will be hoping he can maintain that level on the road as well as at home.
“I think guys take different amounts of time to get into rhythm sometimes, right? And I saw flashes of that with James, I think, in the previous three, four games,” Atkinson said. “I could see flashes, and he’s getting back to his level, getting back into the top form. So it’s nice to see it confirmed tonight.”