James Harden Points Tonight: How Did The Clippers Guard’s Stats Fare In Season Opener?

James Harden in the Los Angeles Clippers’ season opener is in a role that he hasn’t been in since his days as a Houston Rocket: the team’s sole offensive engine. Tonight’s Clippers-Suns bout saw Harden, in Kawhi Leonard’s absence due to his knee injury, have his fingerprints in every aspect of the game on the offensive end.

James Harden Stats against Suns (Oct 23rd, 2024)
Points	29
Assists	8
Rebounds	11
Steals	1
Blocks	0
FGM/FGA	10/28

He had an incredibly slow start in the first half, going 2-11 from the field and scoring just 4 points. Harden’s best highlight by halftime was undoubtedly his lob to Derrick Jones Jr from the right wing which had Clips owner, Steve Balmer, ecstatic.

In this first half, he did keep his one-on-one defensive contests active all while manning the offense and setting his wings and bigs up. While he didn’t fill the stat sheet by the time halftime came around, he did grab 9 rebounds and dish out 4 assist.

‘The Beard’ eventually picked up the pace in the 3^rd quarter as he dropped 16 points and led the Clips to gain a lead over the fully-stacked Suns. His 5 FGMs in this quarter consisted of two 3s as well. This prompted him to say, “I’m waking up,” to himself in excitement.

The beginning of the 4^th quarter saw him regress a bit in terms of aggression and also have multiple defensive lapses. However, he did have several crucial buckets down the stretch including his stepback mid-range in the paint with the minutes winding down.

After failing to win it at the buzzer for the Clippers, he would go on to lead his team into OT. Unfortunately, the Intuit Dome inauguration was spoiled with the Suns winning 116-113 following Harden’s fumble at the end of the period.