Last Night In The NBA: James Harden Is One Bad Motherfucker
Good morning everybody happy Friday and welcome back to another edition of Last Night In The NBA where we bring you up to speed on everything that went down from the night before in the Association. We had just three games on the schedule but boy were they all fucking awesome. Between Kawhi’s return to SA, a great battle in SAC, and then James Harden being super human, last night was not a night you wanted to miss. I’m not even going to waste your time, let’s just jump right in. Here’s what happened.
Toronto Raptors (28-12) 107 vs San Antonio Spurs (22-17) 125
Right off the bat we got an answer to the biggest question of how the Spurs fans would respond to Kawhi being introduced
I gave it a 5.5/10 on the boo scale last night and I stand by that. Once that was out of the way though it was time to play, and holy shit were the Spurs motivated for this one. They came out guns blazing, had a double digit lead in no time and from there never looked back. They’ve been insane at home lately, this was their 10th straight win and it also gave us the first triple double of DeMar DeRozan’s career
He said over the summer he was going to go for 50, and while he didn’t quite get there, my lord was he impressive. Just like they looked against BOS, the Spurs essentially couldn’t miss. They finished with 55/48% splits, made 13 3PM, and never had a quarter under 29 points. As dominant as DeRozan was, he wasn’t alone, guys like Bryn Forbes were awesome
Derrick White backed up his strong play against BOS with a little 19 points on 8-11 shooting
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This was a beatdown from the start and probably pretty cathartic for Spurs fans. Sure they would probably take Kawhi back in a second, but this was a classic example of theym wanting to show that they are doing fine since the break up. That they are very happy with their new girl and aren’t even thinking about Kawhi.
For TOR, Kawhi was once again their main scorer with only 21 on 8-13 shooting
they did have great depth, the best bench in the league showed up and dropped 50 points which is pretty ridiculous, but it wasn’t a great return for Danny Green who went 0-7, and seeing a TOR team give up 125 points was a little shocking given how nasty they are on that end. Chances are things would have looked a little different had Lowry played, but the Spurs are on such a role right now I’m not so sure.
Denver Nuggets (25-11) 117 vs Sacramento Kings (19-19) 113
It won’t get the same hype as the other two games last night, but this battle in SAC was every bit as exciting and dramatic. For the first 24 minutes, the Kings were dominant. They dropped 66 points, were once up by like 15 points, they were making everything
Beating the top team in the West is no joke, and every Celtics fan out there was getting a little annoyed because what the hell why are the Kings this good? They finished ith 50/42% splits and 13 3PM, turned it over just 12 times, and they looked like they were on their way to a great win. Sadly though, there are two halves in basketball.
For DEN, as good as SAC was in the first half, that’s how good they were in the second. They used a giant run in the third quarter to climb back into it, and then once things were close in the fourth, they relied on their best players who came through
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Jamal Murray was a problem in that second half and the fourth quarter especially where he dropped 17 points. Look who was also back. Garry Harris
With Millsap back as well, the Nuggets are getting healthy again and that’s pretty scary. They survived all these injuries and are still atop the West which is very very impressive, and now that they have their talent back, watch out.
Houston Rockets (22-15) 135 vs Golden State Warriors (25-14) 134 F/OT
But let’s not kid ourselves, the game of the night was this one. Hopefully you stayed away because it may have been the game of the year, no bullshit. We’ll start with the Warriors, who finished with 52% shooting and 14 3PM
It felt like every time the Rockets made a huge shot, the Warriors always came right back down and answered. Two teams with legit unguardable players, it was incredible to watch. There obviously was some drama, mostly around this play where Kevin Durant was for sure out of bounds
I mean that’s the worst call of all time and why people hate the Warriors. I cannot WAIT to see the L2M report of this game. Anyway the Basketball Gods corrected things later, but I dunno how you miss that call at such a huge moment. Durant isn’t just a little out of bounds, he’s practically in Oakland. You knew pretty early that this was going to come down to whoever had the ball last once the Rockets finally came back from beign down 20, and the facts are the facts, the Rockets have now beated the Warriors in both of their meetings.
For HOU, I tweeted this before the game
What happened? How about 44/10/15 and a win for James Harden. This goes along with my blog from the other day, but how can you watch this dude and say “eh, he’s not fun to watch”. Are we watching the same sport? James Harden is having such a run right now you have to have him at least top 2 in MVP voting. Period.
And I want to talk for a second about that game winner. What a ridiculous shot
I don’t know how he made it, double covered like that, on the move, nothing but net. Considering this is where he shot from to try and win it in regulation
I had a feeling he was going to try and ice it with a similar shot. But just think of the situation, he didn’t have to go for the win, nobody gets to the rim better than Harden, he very well could have tied it and had a second OT. The fact that he went for the kill and got it is why I love him as a player. Great night for ASU, great night for Team Harden.
He also had help though
the Rockets made 21 3PM, turned it over just 10 times, and have now won 11 of their last 12 and 6 in a row. Hottest team in the NBA for sure.
And that’s it! You’re now all caught up on everything that went down last night in the NBA. We’re back tonight with 10 more games, but go ahead and enjoy your Friday night and check back in the morning and I’ll bring you up to speed on what you missed.