Houston Rockets: James Harden’s rising minutes is a major concern

Houston Rockets guard James Harden is playing a great stretch of basketball but because of CP3’s injury, his minutes have risen. Here’s why to be concerned.

After a sputtering start to the season, the Houston Rockets have elevated themselves back into the conversation on who’s going to be the likely team that will be enabled to dethrone the Golden State Warriors.

It’s frustrating to know that the Houston Rockets were just one game from doing so in last season’s Western Conference Finals and their underachieving start to season had us all scratching our heads, figuring out what in the heck was going on.

My glass typically stays half full but I was beginning to start toying with idea of what the Houston Rockets should do in the off season as a lottery team instead of one that’s expected to have a long postseason run.

The Houston Rockets have been over .500 since early December and currently hold a 23-17 record, six games above that mark, good for currently 6th in the Western Conference.  They’re only 4.5 games behind the first-place 27-12 Denver Nuggets and the closely, one-game trailing Warriors (27-14).

The team has also won 12 of their last 15 games.

Chris Paul hasn’t been in uniform since Dec. 20 as he nurses yet another hamstring injury; but luckily, the team has weathered the storm, going 7-2 without his presence.  He’s expected to miss two to three more weeks.

Looking for more Rockets deep discussion?  Take a listen to Houston Sports Talk where Robert Land brings on ClutchFans founder David Hardisty to talk about this special run this team is making:

In addition, Eric Gordon will also be out another week after suffering a right-knee contusion Dec. 29 against the New Orleans Pelicans and has missed five games so far.

How are the Houston Rockets still finding success without two of their most productive guards on the shelf?

The signing of Austin Rivers off waivers has certainly helped as he has been a terrific complement to the flow of the team’s offense.  He is currently shooting 38.9 percent from behind-the-arc, averaging 2.6 makes and 6.8 attempts for the team thus far, indicating that he can sink the three-ball at a high-volume.

Who would’ve thought that one of the Houston Rockets biggest foes from his days at the Los Angeles Clippers would warrant him to join forces and help this team win some games?

Life certainly comes at you fast.

But most importantly, the reason why this team is finding ways to win basketball games is the heroics of the great James Harden.  He has truly come into his own during these stretch of games that CP3 has been out and it’s certainly to the level of which I’ve never seen out of him before.

His performance against the Warriors just one week ago where he willed this team from 20 points down to get his team to overtime and nailed one of the best game-winning shots I’ve seen in my lifetime.  That is nothing short of amazing.

He put Klay Thompson on skates with a sick crossover and elevated himself over a contesting Draymond Green to give the Rockets a 135-134 win in overtime with one tick left on the clock.

You’d want to categorize the game as an instant classic because long after the Beard has retired, I do believe that game will be used as an exhibit to demonstrate how the greats get the job done despite the challenges set forth.

He had no Paul and no Gordon and still found a way.  It’s to the point of where it reaches the territory of Michael Jordan, who is the king of coming through in the clutch.

Harden hasn’t had much of an opportunity to hit a clutch shot — basically defined by a shot made in the 4th quarter or overtime with neither team ahead by more than five points — over his career because either his teams would be up by a significant margin or vice versa, especially in the Mike D’Antoni-era.

But last Thursday was an exception — and there will be more to build on his resume — because the last clutch shot I recall he has hit was against the Phoenix Suns back Jan. 23, 2015, where he sunk the go-ahead three-pointer with one second left left in regulation, beating them 113-111.

Any way, the minutes that Harden has been logged since Paul and Gordon have been out have been alarming — since Dec. 29th, the Beard’s minutes log for the last five games have been 41 vs. MEM, 44 @ GSW, 37 @ POR, 40 vs. DEN and 41 vs. MIL.

Harden is currently averaging 41 minutes per game and the team has gone 3-2 during this stretch

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and is 3.9 minutes above his career average with the Rockets (37.1 MPG).  To make a side note, it wouldn’t be fair to compare his numbers throughout his entire span in the NBA because he wasn’t getting starter minutes with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

There is absolutely no way Harden can sustain this over a extended period of time and D’Antoni needs to rest Harden in spurts, especially when this team has a double-digit lead down the stretch.

The problem is that the Rockets aren’t blowing out their opponents like they were last season; and more often than not, they’re fighting tooth-and-nail all the way to the final minute to win games.

I know that minutes-management his highly situational but I think if D’Antoni can rest him the first few minutes of the second half as well as a bit in the waning of minutes of the first, there could be a sweet spot for him to remain healthy.

Harden looked exhausted in those final minutes against the Milwaukee Bucks last night and that’s something I don’t like to see that often so something has been done about it immediately.

Yes, it’s going to be difficult to force Harden to sit — he’s the ultimate competitor — but it will be for his own good.

We’ll have to see.

Harden is averaging 33.9 points, 8.6 assists and 6.0 rebounds along with a shooting line of .436/.386/.853, appearing in all 37 games this season.