Harden Records 1st Playoff Triple-Double of Career
Houston Rockets guard James Harden recorded the first playoff triple-double of his career Tuesday night, helping his team stave off elimination with a 124-103 Game 5 win over the Los Angeles Clippers, per NBA.com/stats.
Harden made nine of his 20 field-goal attempts, just one of his eight three-point tries and seven of his eight free throws, finishing with 26 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and five turnovers in a game-high 43 minutes.
It was the seventh triple-double of his impressive career, but the first six came during the regular season. All seven have occurred in a Rockets uniform, with his first coming back in February 2013, while his most recent was just a few weeks ago on April 15, per Basketball-Reference.com's play index.
Though he's always been known for his scoring more so than his well-rounded stat lines, the 25-year-old guard finished second in the league with four triple-doubles during the 2014-15 regular season, trailing only the 11 produced by Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook.
While the Rockets still need two straight wins to advance to the Western Conference Finals, Harden is playing up to expectations in the playoffs for the first time since he was traded from the Thunder to the Rockets.
His team was eliminated after six games in the first round in both 2012-13 and 2013-14, with Harden shooting just 39.1 percent from the field the first time, followed by 37.6 percent the second time.
Through 10 games this postseason, he's made 45.7 percent of his field-goal attempts and 37.9 percent of his three-point attempts, averaging 26.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 8.5 assists per game.
