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James Harden created another statuesque defensive lowlight (Video)
Houston’s win over Toronto on Sunday was perhaps its most impressive conquest of the season.
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Yes, the team has topped the Thunder, and they downed a full-strength San Antonio Spurs squad on Christmas, but the Rockets had all the reason to pack it in against the East’s second best team prior to its 113-106 win. The Rox played and lost the night before in Chicago in a nationally televised game, then it had to travel and lose an hour (to say nothing of going through customs) to face a Toronto team that entered the contest with a 41-19 record.
The Rockets played superb basketball against the Raptors, though, who were not working on a second end of a back-to-back. James Harden led his team with 40 points on only 20 shots, he dished 14 assists to zero turnovers in the face of All-Star Kyle Lowry, while adding five rebounds.
And, as is usually the case with Mr. Harden, the only thing anyone will be talking about on Monday is this whiff of a defensive “play.” Via Pro Basketball Talk:
This is a pretty sportswriter-y take, but if the Raptors managed to come back following Harden’s misstep (or, really, no step at all), this would have served as the team’s 2015-16 highlight video in full. This year James has put up nearly identical offensive stats to the ones we saw in 2014-15, when he nearly won the MVP award, but he’s regressed terribly on defense after basically taking last summer off. The Rockets have fallen from eighth to 24th defensively, and are on pace for 41 wins a year after winning 56 games.
Actually, that final 2:38 might still serve as a telling highlight video. DeMar DeRozan’s two free throws tied the game at 104, but Harden scored five of his team’s final nine points as Houston clung on to win, snapping Toronto’s home winning streak at 12 games.
The Rockets are 1.5 games up on the Utah Jazz for the eighth and final seed in the West, with 19 to play. This is not how the team saw its March and April lining up when it showed up to camp last October, but these are the rides James Harden takes you on.
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is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
