James Harden: HOH's Week 19 Silver Booster Award Winner

The Houston Rockets were finally able to complete that hellish week of scheduling that involved them playing five games in seven days.

At the point toward the end of that swing of the schedule, they had undertaken four games in five nights, which is quite a workload.

But as resilient as our team is, they dug deep and found a way to give it their all even though it still may have not been enough against some of the opponents we had.

Mar 7, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Houston Rockets guard

James Harden

(13) works against Denver Nuggets guard

Randy Foye

(4) during the second half at Pepsi Center. The Rockets won 114-100. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

The whole week played out like a soap opera — controversial calls by refs, suspensions and trick shots galore.

Despite of all that transpired last week, your Houston Rockets ended up with a 3-2 record.

You know, that’s about where I had expected that they would be.

I knew they’d raise the tenacity up a step against the Cleveland Cavaliers to beat them, maintain a solid effort but lose to the Atlanta Hawks and the Memphis Grizzlies.

At the end of the week, I knew they were up for taking care of the Detroit Pistons and Denver Nuggets, two bad teams that could be lottery-bound.

It was a fun, extremely eventful week for Rockets basketball.

There’s a guy on our team that continues to do amazing things for our team and despite the challenges he is carrying this team to the coveted promised land.

Not sure who that is?

I’m pretty sure you can take a wild guess.

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!

It has been two weeks since the Beard has won this award — although Terrence Jones is just as deserving, Harden had a historical, stellar week despite being suspended for one game for kicking LeBron James in the bean bags.

I have to admit that it was fun to watch — the Beard had to figure out a way to fend of LBJ and what not a better way than a swift kick.

Unfortunately, that kick was aimed in the wrong direction causing a scuffle from both teams causing Tristan Thompson and Trevor Ariza to get into it. They were slapped with a double technical for their actions.

He was suspended against the Rockets’ game against the Hawks and despite his absence the team had an incredible chance to beat them but ran of gas and could not execute toward the end.

Friday night, against the Pistons, he recorded his third triple-double of the season and his fifth of his career.

That’s not an easy feat but the intriguing thing about it was that he was first Rocket to do so since Clyde Drexler during the 1996-97 season which was the last time it had been done.

I even cracked a wide grin while watching the ROOT Sports telecast when color analyst Matt Bullard had asked him if he recalled the moment he did it.

The Glide jokingly answered that he barely remembered what he did yesterday.

But Harden’s level of high play took to the stratosphere that game, including sinking a delightful step-back toward the end of the third as he ferociously faked out Spencer Dinwiddie and baited him in for the foul.

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Harden ended up with 38 points, 12 rebounds and 12 dimes — certainly a night that was worthy being talked about in the same sentence as the Glide, the epitome of hoops grandeur.

For the week, he averaged 29.3 PPG, 9.3 APG, 7.0 RPG while shooting 33-for-74 FG (45.6 percent) and 28-for-31 FT (90.3 percent).

As I continue to watch what a magical season that he has had thus far, I keep wondering what is he going to do next to redefine the laws of basketball!

He’s just one of those players that come around once in a lifetime and I’m damn proud that he is donning a Rockets’ uniform!

As the season unwinds as the Rockets start hitting the home stretch, Harden is poised to ensure that his team will succeed.

It been a pleasure watch everything that has unfolded and the things I’ve seen do with a basketball are nothing short of outstanding.

Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, even LBJ?!?

Fughetaboutit!

Nah, the front-running MVP At-large is 1st in offensive win shares (13.0) and 5th in defensive win shares (3.5), a stark improvement of being ranked 9th just a few weeks ago.

It’s important to note that Harden has never been ranked so high in defensive win shares with this season being his first in the Top 10.

James Harden: HOH’s Week 19 Silver Booster Award Winner

By Brian K. Patterson | Mar 10, 2015

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