James Harden will play his third game as a member of the Cavaliers tonight when the Wizards come to town. It will be his first home game on his new team, and the Cavs, who have won both games with Harden and nine of their last 10 overall, are heavy favorites to keep on rolling.
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Harden has fit in seamlessly with the Cavs since coming over before last week’s trade deadline. His 22 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists helped lead a double-digit road comeback to beat the Nuggets on Monday. Before that, he made his debut with 22 points, 2 rebounds and 8 assists in a win over the Kings.
The Cavs are currently in a crowded pack of Eastern Conference teams that sit will behind the first-place Pistons. But their recent hot stretch, and the addition of Harden to a team that already has Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, has them as the betting favorites to represent the East in the Finals.
Harden gets a lot of negative press for the way he always seems to end on a sour note with the teams he’s played for, and for his continued struggles in the playoffs. On the newest episode of No Fouls Given, though, Paul Pierce said that we should all give the 2018 MVP more credit.
“You know what’s the great thing about James,” Pierce said, “nobody that I can remember in NBA history has transformed their game to a level that James has to be as effective as he has been at the point guard [position].”
“What I mean by that, he went from a player that was probably known as the best scorer at one point in the league to now he reinvented his game to now be in the top two or three passers in this league, and probably the best pick-and-roll player in this league, at an older age,” the Hall of Famer explained.
Pierce makes a great point. Harden went from being the 6th Man of the Year with the Thunder, to leading the NBA in assists in 2017 with the Rockets, followed immediately by three straight years as the league’s leading scorer. He later went on to lead the league in assists again with the Sixers, all while still being a guy who has consistently averaged over 22 points per game.
Harden has had many stops in his career, and at each one, he’s reinvented his game to give his new team what they need. He’s now 36 years old, and while he doesn’t have the same level of explosiveness that he used to, the former MVP is still one of the best one-on-one players in the league.
That, combined with his ability to get his teammates involved and the way his new teammates have already embraced him, should give the Cavs more than a fighting chance to get back to their first Finals since LeBron James led them there in 2018.
