The Rockets had grown accustomed to James Harden superlatives. Stats. Honors. Awards. They no longer turn heads. For the fifth time in six seasons, he is one of three finalists for MVP. That is expected.
There is a different measure now, one more relevant with the Rockets’ playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder to start Tuesday. Even with Russell Westbrook, the other half of the Rockets’ one-two punch, out for the start of the series, the familiar aspirations of a championship remain.
The Rockets have the guy, they argue, who makes a team a title contender. That means more, especially with the team shorthanded, than stats and honors.
“When you have a player like James, you always have a chance,” guard Austin Rivers said. “That’s like taking the greatest player or the best player on any of the top teams. Milwaukee with Giannis (Antetokounmpo) — it feels like they have a chance. The Lakers with LeBron (James). They have a chance. Portland with Damian (Lillard). They have a chance. We have James. We feel like we have a chance.”
This is not new. But Harden’s performance on both ends of the floor in the seeding games has reinvigorated that sort of hope. Memories of the regular season’s uncharacteristic shooting slumps have been been buried by the rise in his defense, inspiring greater confidence around him.
“James is the best player in the league, you could argue right now,” Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said. “It’s a very small list that you could argue ahead of James. In a lot of playoff series, it comes down to who has the best player. We feel pretty good about those odds.”
To Morey, Harden’s defense is now an argument for his spot among the NBA’s elite, rather than against it.
Harden has played so well defensively he at last has largely defeated the narrative about him. It still comes up in conversations, especially when his defense stands out as it did at the end of a win against the Bucks, in which when picked up Antetokounmpo and his reputation was cited to point out the contrast.
But it has largely been accepted that his defense has gone from better than the memes to not bad to a strength, the final step largely because of his abilities defending in the low post and as a disruptive, handsy defender.
“If people just focused on his defense now and hadn’t had the overhang of what their beliefs were early in his career, he might be making all-defensive teams,” Morey said. “The only difference between him and other superstars who have made all-defensive teams is marketing.”
Numbers help make that case. Harden was 11th in the NBA in deflections per game, leading the league with five per game after the restart, up from his overall average of 3.2. He was fifth in steals per game this season, second in the restart.
With 125 steals this season, he joined Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson as the only players to lead the NBA in steals and scoring in the same season.
Harden is the top-rated defensive player in the low post among players who have defended post-ups at least once per game and played at least a half of this season, allowing just 68 points per 100 possessions.
This is no small factor. Because the Rockets switch so often, no one in the NBA has defended in the low post as often as Harden, and it is not close. His 127 possessions defending post-ups are 41 more than Dallas’ Maxi Kleber and teammate P.J. Tucker, who played six and four more games, respectively.
“His defense and his defensive awareness and rebounding and all those things you maybe don’t watch statistically have gone way up,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Offensively, he’s as good as he’s ever been, and he’s been really good. But I just think his overall game, he’s taken it up another notch from where it was.”
Still, Harden will not be called a defensive specialist, and the Rockets might need his offense more than ever. A player who will forever be judged by his team’s postseason success, Harden will likely need to average at least last season’s career playoff high of 31.6 points per game, or the 34.8 he averaged against the Warriors, even with the double teams that forced the change in the Rockets’ offense and roster even more likely with Westbrook out.
Averaging 34.3 points per game this season, Harden became the eighth player to lead the NBA in scoring in three straight seasons, averaging more assists than his predecessors. He joined Wilt Chamberlain and Jordan as the only players in league history to average at least 34 points in consecutive seasons.
Of the 17 seasons in which a player has averaged 34 points or more, only Nate Archibald in 1972-73 and Harden last season averaged more assists than Harden’s 7.5 this season.
“I don’t think it surprises anybody,” D’Antoni said. “It’s an unbelievable feat. The great thing about now, he’s lifted his game on the defensive end significantly. He’s playing at a very high level. Always has and probably always will.”
Still, Harden begins his 11th postseason, and eighth with the Rockets, with as much on his shoulders — hopes and expectations included — as there has ever been.
“He’s done so much, and he’s always done so much. I just view it as James being James at this point,” Rivers said. “He’s arguably the best player in the league. A guy like that, they just keep going, and I think the smart players follow. That’s what we’re trying to do now.”
jonathan.feigen@chron.com
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