NEW YORK (AP) — James Harden is a three-time NBA scoring champion who averaged more than 30 points in each of those seasons.
So when he was managing half that through 11 games this season, there were questions whether he still had it at 37 years old. Harden may have provided his own answer Wednesday with a throwback performance, scoring a season-high 32 points to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 115-107 victory over the New York Knicks.
"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."
Harden came into the night averaging just 15.3 points. He was shooting only 34.6% from the field, which would easily be the worst of his career, and the Cavaliers were off to a 5-6 start in their first full season since acquiring him from the Clippers.
Harden acknowledges that he's still trying to find the right way to play alongside fellow superstar Donovan Mitchell. Coach Kenny Atkinson insists the Cavaliers don't 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 fine with that.
And when he wasn't even close to start this season, Harden said the criticism didn't bother him, because he was criticized back then for being a scorer but not a winner.
"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."
Atkinson said he had seen flashes of the old Harden earlier this season, even though Harden totaled five baskets and six turnovers in the last two games. The former NBA MVP sustained it for an entire game Wednesday, finishing 9 for 14 and 5 for 7 from 3-point range, including the tiebreaking 3 with 4:21 left.
Atkinson thinks playing at Madison Square Garden, where Harden shares the opponent scoring record of 61 points with Kobe Bryant, may have sparked his strong performance, saying that he's a “global superstar” and those types of players love playing in New York.
The Cavs hope he'll keep it up when he's playing everywhere.
"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."
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