Damian Lillard Concurs With DeMar DeRozan’s Praise For James Harden’s 2010s Scoring Runs

Due to an increased focus on his off-court situations, it might be easy to forget how dominant James Harden was in his prime. Just 5 years ago, some considered him to be the greatest isolation scorer in NBA history. Recently, All-Stars DeMar DeRozan and Damian Lillard added to Harden’s long list of praises.

Sacramento’s latest acquisition, DeRozan, was on Jeff Teague’s Club 520 podcast when Teague brought up The Beard‘s scoring prowess. The 6x All-Star immediately agreed,

“The run James had… Like, that ain’t even a video game. That sh*t was like some f*cking Space Jam.” 

DeMar was referring to Harden’s unstoppable play during the late 2010s. The 35-year-old power forward added,

“You just knew when you checked the box score, it’s going to be something f*cking crazy…40, 45, 15 assists, 10 rebounds.”

Harden’s numbers and consistency made that run “the most incredible sh*t” DeRozan had ever seen. And he’s not alone.

Shortly after ESPN shared the clips from DeRozan’s interview, Damian Lillard shared the post on his stories, concisely adding “Frfr”. Dame himself was in the Western Conference at that time, so he witnessed The Beard‘s wizardry first-hand during the 2010s.

Of course, it was hard to miss Harden’s scoring prowess, particularly during the 2018-19 season. On the back of 57 games with at least 30 points, Harden achieved a career-high 36.1 points per game. Harden’s true shooting percentage was a whopping 62% from 2018 to 2020.

That’s why even certified bucket-getters like DeRozan and Lillard had to applaud him for his incredible run. Dame even took it a step further and learned a lesson.

Harden’s Rockets helped Lillard embrace the 3-pointer

Last year, when Lillard appeared on JJ Redick’s The Old Man and The Three podcast, Redick asked him about his transition to averaging 10 3-pointers a game. Dame pointed to his experience facing Harden’s Rockets.

He explained how despite having a good game against Houston, his Trail Blazers were down big because they were scoring 2s while the Rockets were scoring 3s. This led to Damian Lillard accepting,

“Everybody’s shooting more 3s. You can’t win without doing it.”

Clearly, Lillard embraced that change as the 2010s winded down. During the 2019-20 season, he attempted over 10 3-pointers for the first time in his career. Incredibly, he converted them at a 40.1% clip, the highest 3-point efficiency of his career.

In the 4 seasons that followed, Dame continued on this trend and even reached as many as 11.3 attempted 3-pointers during his final season in Portland.

Though Lillard’s first season with the Bucks saw a slight dip in his shooting numbers, fans are still expecting to see ‘Dame Time’ in full effect next season. If the Bucks find success with Giannis and Dame’s inside-out game, they might have Harden to thank.