NEW YORK — James Harden was in his bag Friday night, dribbling, creating space, draining 3’s and letting everyone know that he was starting to feel more like himself as he yelled out during a timeout while clenching his fists and flexing his arms.
Harden also was finally back at a place he knows well — the free throw line. After going to the line a combined 15 times in his first five games, Harden went 16-for-19 from the stripe and scored a season-high 29 points to go with eight assists and eight rebounds to help the Nets take a 105-98 win over the Indiana Pacers at Barclays Center.
This was, by far, Harden’s best game of the season after getting off to a slow start and averaging 16.6 points entering Friday.
“It wasn’t 30, obviously,” said Harden, who admitted on Wednesday that his body and game aren’t quite at the point where he can score 30 or 40 points a night. “I keep saying it — every single game, I feel good, I feel better today, I continue to work on off-days and non-game days, and on game days continue to get to the basket and shoot my shots.
“Nothing’s gonna change. Eventually things are gonna happen where it’s consistent and I’m out there playing [like] myself.”
Earlier this week, Nets coach Steve Nash said he felt Harden had unfairly become the “poster boy” for this season’s rules changes, with officials cracking down on “overt, abrupt or abnormal non-basketball moves” of offensive players with the ball looking to draw fouls.
Before Friday night’s game, Harden had not gone to the line more than four times in a game this season. But against the Pacers, he went to the line nine times in the second quarter alone when he scored 13 points.
This was the 72nd time in his career that Harden had at least 15 free throws, the most in NBA history, according to ESPN Stats and Information research.
“It was just me being aggressive,” Harden said. “The first couple of games I wasn’t aggressive. I was aggressive in spurts, but just trying to be aggressive for four…
Source : espn
