James Harden: HOH's Week 16 Silver Booster Award Winner

The Houston Rockets had one of their most challenging weeks as of late that they undertook this week.

The had to do this all without Dwight Howard, who will be out likely a little over a month at least to nurse the edema in his right knee.

The team has gone 14-7 without him.

The deck of cards was stacked up against them.

The Rockets faced the Portland Trail Blazers at home Sunday, then traveled up to the Valley of the Sun Tuesday to face the Phoenix Suns and then took on the Los Angeles Clippers on a back-to-back Wednesday.

The Rockets unfortunately fared with a 1-2 record this week against three opponents that are all in the playoff race in the Western Conference.

This week played out somewhat to how I expected, although I really thought the Rockets would be able to beat the Blazers.

But no avail, they couldn’t stop the power of LaMarcus Aldridge and the dynamic play of Damian Lillard.

Feb 10, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Houston Rockets guard

James Harden

(13) shoots over Phoenix Suns forward

P.J. Tucker

(17) at US Airways Center. The Rockets won 127-118. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Any way, this week went into the books quickly as it meandered its way to the All-Star break of approximately a little over a week.

There were some valiant efforts but then there were some blunders that we witnessed as well.

But you win some, you lose some but ultimately you live to fight another day and that’s what the Rockets will do.

There’s one man out there that never quits, continues to fight the good fight and give it his all despite the obstacles that stand in the way.

I sometimes wonder if he’s even human at some points, that is, until he commits a turnover then things fall back to reality.

Just who am I talking about?

Because of this, excellence deserves to be recognized — today on that type of basis continuously, we will honor an individual player that made the most impact in helping the team, despite whether it resulted in a win or a loss.

We’ve dubbed it House of Houston Silver Booster Award…

And this week’s Silver Booster Award goes to…

James Harden!

This is Harden’s third week that he has received this award and with the kind of week has had, he unanimously received our votes.

He continues to make his case why he is league’s Most Valuable Player and it’s showing.

Feb 11, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Houston Rockets guard

James Harden

(left) talks with Los Angeles Clippers guard J.J. Reddick (right) during the second quarter at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

He fakes, he euro-steps, he drives hard to the basket to attempt to draw fouls and plays on both ends of the floor to help his team win.

When he gets hurt, he gets right back up, dusts himself off and gets back to work.

Try this on for size — in the three games the Rockets undertook, he scored 40 points against the Blazers, 45 against the Suns and nine points against the Clippers.

Although it appeared he had a off night with the Clips, he actually was the focus of the team’s defensive strategy to take Harden out of the Rockets’ equation and have the rest of the team beat them.

It’s a strategy that worked for the Clippers but it puts no damper whatsoever for the Beard’s candidacy for MVP.

He’ll continue to turn heads as he continues to do things we, as Rockets’ fans, haven’t seen in quite some time in terms of dominance.

He leads the league in scoring (27.4 PPG), field goal attempts (970), free throws made/attempted (429-of-493), points, overall win shares (11.1), offensive win shares (8.2), and the value over replacement player (5.4) statistic.

He is 8th in the league in defensive win shares (2.9) for the first time is his career that he has ever been in the top 10.

Those sound like MVP-like numbers to me!

For the past week, he averaged 31.3 PPG 8.7 RPG, 7.7 APG, 2.6 SPG while shooting 45 percent (27-for-60) from the field and 79 percent (33-of-42) from the charity stripe.

James Harden: HOH’s Week 16 Silver Booster Award Winner

By Brian K. Patterson | Feb 14, 2015