James Harden pleasantly surprised the Houston Rockets training personnel by showing no indications of rust as a full participant in Thursdays practice, his very first since getting to the NBAs Walt Disney World Resort school five days after the team flew to Orlando, Florida.
” He looked great,” Rockets coach Mike DAntoni stated. “He probably was rusty for about 30 seconds, and after that he was back.”
Harden, who mentioned “some family issues” as the reason for his delayed arrival, stated it was the very first time he had actually played 5-on-5 in more than a month. Colleague Ben McLemore stated Harden looked like the “usual James” during the groups scrimmage.
” I believe the world understands, no matter whats going on, James Harden loves to hoop,” said Harden, who is balancing 34.4 points per game and is a virtual lock to claim his 3rd consecutive NBA scoring title. “Hes a competitor, so today in practice we got after it. We played a couple of quarters and we pressed ourselves, and Im doing a lot of garbage talking as normal, simply to get the people inspired and keep pressing.”
2 RelatedD Antoni prepared for easing Harden into practice after a layoff of more than four months. Harden told DAntoni that he thought he was ready to completely get involved right away.
” I thought we d have to ramp him up a little bit, however hes been going hard before he got here,” DAntoni said. If hes aching or something else, then perhaps well back him off, however right now hes full tilt. He looks like hes prepared to go.”
The Rockets are still awaiting the arrivals of Russell Westbrook, their other seasonal All-Star guard, and current addition Luc Mbah a Moute. Westbrook revealed today that he tested positive for COVID-19 prior to the Rockets departure for Orlando.
” Once we get Russ back and weve got our complete lineup healthy and we get in shape like we need to be, we can take on any person,” Harden said.
Harden plans to participate in the Rockets scrimmages in preparation for the eight-game seeding schedule. He acknowledged, though, that his goal for the Rockets is to strike their stride as the playoffs begin next month.
Houston is tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder for 5th location in the Western Conference standings with a 40-24 record, a video game behind the Utah Jazz. Harden indicated that the Rockets would deal with the seeding schedule as somewhat of a tuneup duration, noting that there was no such thing as home-court benefit in the bubble-like environment.
” We do not have any fans, so its you versus us and were going to have to figure it out,” Harden said. “If youre 4th seed, 5th seed, 6th seed, it doesnt truly matter. For us, its about remaining in shape and making sure that our offense and our defense is crispy and were all on the same page. Well play any person.”
” I believe the world understands, no matter whats going on, James Harden likes to hoop,” said Harden, who is averaging 34.4 points per video game and is a virtual lock to declare his third successive NBA scoring title. “Hes a competitor, so today in practice we got after it. We played a couple of quarters and we pressed ourselves, and Im doing a lot of garbage talking as typical, just to get the people encouraged and keep pressing.”
” I thought we d have to ramp him up a little bit, however hes been going hard before he got here,” DAntoni said.” We do not have any fans, so its you versus us and were going to have to figure it out,” Harden stated.
