Getty The Rockets' James Harden has made NBA history.
They may not be the Golden State Warriors of last season, but they’re still technically the Warriors.
As the Houston Rockets handed the Warriors a 129-112 beatdown on Wednesday night, not only did the Rockets avenge all of their previous postseason defeats at the hands of Golden State, James Harden made a little bit of history.
Although he had been off to a rough start to the 2019-20 season, the 30-year-old shooting guard had a solid game in the team’s victory over the Warriors. Harden scored 36 points on 10-of-23 from the field (43.5 percent) and 6-of-16 from 3-point range (37.5 percent).
However, while that was impressive in itself, the 36-point performance ensured that Harden’s ridiculous scoring average at the start of the season would continue. Through the first eight games of the 2019-20 season, Harden has averaged 36.5 points per game — which means he has 292 total points on the season.
That’s the best mark through the first eight games of an NBA season by any player since Michael Jordan posted 303 points in 1988-89 (37.9 points per game), according to ESPN.
“Harden’s 292 points through the first eight games (36.5 points per game) mark the highest point total through eight games since Michael Jordan had 303 in 1988-89.”
With their victory over the suddenly star-less Warriors, the Rockets moved to 5-3 on the season — just a half-game behind the Dallas Mavericks for the division lead in the Southwest Division.
Rockets Attribute Early-Season Struggles To Conditioning
For a team that’s 5-3 and just a half-game behind the lead for their division, the Rockets have faced more criticism than any team in the NBA not named the Warriors. And in the case of the Warriors, we all know that they’re bad because they’re literally playing without any stars at the moment.
As far as Houston is concerned, they’re not nearly as dominant as people expected them to be. Entering the team’s matchup against Golden State, the Rockets were giving up the second-most points per game. Furthermore, the shooting struggles of Harden has been well magnified.
Even after a respectable shooting performance in Houston’s win over Golden State, the veteran guard is still just converting on just 38.7 percent of his field-goal attempts and a ridiculously bad 27.0 percent of his 3-point attempts.
With all of that said, if you’re wondering what the Rockets’ reason is for their “early season” struggles, it’s due to their lack of conditioning, said Harden.
“We’re getting there game by game. We don’t really practice a lot, we’re a vet team. (D’Antoni) leaves it up to us to go out there and compete at a high level. We work on our condition in that way. Individually, we have to make sure we’re on that, and as a team, we have to make sure we’re on that.”
Harden Forgets That Kevin Durant Is Not on the Warriors
And in other notable news, Harden had such a sensational performance that he forgot that his former teammate, Kevin Durant, no longer actually plays for the Warriors.
Check out the video for yourself.
“Hopefully Klay, KD & Steph get back soon.” – Harden, masterfully trolling the Warriors
Durant references aside, the Rockets will look to extend their winning streak to three games when they play at Chicago to take on the Bulls on Saturday night.