James Harden says the historic scoring rampage he’s on is simply a byproduct of the Rockets’ rash of injuries this season.
“That’s something I have to do in order to give us a chance to win the game,” says the NBA’s reigning MVP.
Harden told fellow All-Stars this weekend that he would like to play less “hero ball” for Houston going forward.
Per ESPN:
“The scoring streak is obviously amazing, but it’s something that I just had to do because of our situation,” Harden said in a sit-down interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols.
“We had all the injuries and guys in and out of the lineup and things like that. So I think the streak just started happening, and now it’s like something to talk about. But it’s not something that I’m really honestly focused on. That’s something I have to do in order to give us a chance to win the game.”
Fellow former MVP Stephen Curry, while wearing a microphone for NBA TV, revealed in a conversation during Saturday’s All-Star practice that Harden adamantly declared that he’d like to share the ball more.
“It’s interesting because I was talking to James in the back, obviously complimented him on what he’s done,” Curry said while chatting with Milwaukee Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer. “The first thing he said was like, ‘Yeah, this is fun, but I wanna play different [than] like playing by myself, whatever, hero ball.’ But like the people want him to play like that in a system where they can actually play beautiful basketball with guys that know how to play.”
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