The Portland Trail Blazers had a tight, overtime battle against the Houston Rockets last night, December 26th. The matchup saw two stars, C.J. McCollum and James Harden traded buckets, both scoring 44 points.
It was the Rockets’ first game of the regular season after missing their December 24th matchup due to both Harden and a separate group of 4 players breaching COVID-19 protocol. The shorthanded Rockets managed to play still, albeit without stars John Wall and Demarcus Cousins as well as veteran sharpshooter Eric Gordon or Rockets rookie Mason Jones.
Harden played fabulously, particularly in his passing game, logging 17 assists to go along with his 44 points. After the game, C.J. McCollum, who dished out 8 assists himself, had nothing but praise for the former MVP.
“James Harden is really good man. Regardless what he does in his free time, He is really f***ing good at basketball”
That “free time” behavior has landed Harden in headlines in recent weeks. The reigning scoring champion missed Rockets training camp along with the majority of their preseason matchups to travel to Atlanta and Las Vegas. Harden maintains that he was just working out with his personal trainers, but photos surfaced of the superstar attending rapper Lil Baby’s birthday party maskless.
Harden also made the news attending the opening of a club his friend owned earlier in the week, forcing him to quarantine for 4 days, missing the Rockets’ intended December 23rd season opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Beard requested to be traded by Houston in the 2020 offseason, most attribute his behavior to his displeasure with the Rockets organization. All the drama was rendered irrelevant following Harden’s play Saturday night and C.J. McCollum wants to make that clear. The Rockets’ next matchup is against the Denver Nuggets tomorrow December 27th.
