James Harden led the Rockets to a win over the Hawks in Houston, but his streak of 32 consecutive 30-point games finally came to an end on Monday night.
With just seconds remaining in the game and the Rockets up 119-111, a total of four Hawks crowded around Harden and cut off every avenue to the bucket, with John Collins playing a safety role.
Harden – who is averaging 36.3 points per game this season, the highest mark since Wilt Chamberlain won the scoring title with 36.9 ppg in 1964 – finished the game with 28 points.
Harden was never going to shoot, anyway, as he knows he’d be grilled for needlessly trying to run the score up to preserve a streak – but the Hawks didn’t want to take chances.
Harden took 21 shots from the field Monday, slightly under his per-game average for the season, but went an abysmal 0-for-10 from behind the arc. Harden is now 6-for-33 from three after the All-Star break.
