James Harden unfazed by shooting struggles after missing his first 15 shots in Houston win
NBA's leading scorer and MVP candidate finished the game with 22 points in the Rockets' win over the Jazz
Sunday 21 April 2019 11:22, UK
James Harden admitted he did not realise he had missed his first 15 shots in the Houston Rockets' Game 3 win over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.
Harden, who averaged more than eight points per game more than any other player over the course of the regular season, remarkably went 0-of-14 from the field through the first three quarters, missing 15 straight shots overall before scoring on a dunk with 7:34 left in the fourth quarter.
He finished 3-of-20 from the field but made hay at the free-throw line by sinking 14 of 16 attempts and he scored 14 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter as the Rockets overcame the Jazz 104-101 to take a 3-0 lead in their playoff series.
When asked about his barren run court-side after the game, he was surprised.
"Woah, for real? I didn't know that," he said. "My job is to go out there and produce. Be aggressive and in attack mode. Nothing changes.
"I was aggressive, they were doing a good job of contesting my shots. Those shots I would shoot every single day, I'm gonna live with them, and in the fourth quarter they fell in.
"We've got character. We fought. We didn't shoot the ball well, we gave up a lot of easy buckets for them, but we kept fighting and no matter how bad we played, we were only down two points after three quarters so we just needed one good quarter in us."
Harden's team-mate Chris Paul said no one was aware of Harden's struggles because it was not important to how they play.
"I went up to him during that timeout and I said, 'get your swag up. You know how we play. We don't play percentages, we don't look at how many shots you've missed or made, we put the work in. That's what you work all summer for'.
"We believe in him like we believe in everybody on our team and we just keep playing and stay the course."
Although the victory was hardly a thing of beauty, Houston coach Mike D'Antoni was grateful for the test.
"Sooner or later we have to win games on defense. We did this time," he said.
Live NBA Playoffs - 21/04/2019 - 3
