Houston Rockets star guard James Harden certainly filled up the box score on Monday night against the Washington Wizards. The Beard dropped 54 points and 13 dimes but also turned the ball over a team-high 11 times.
According to samfisher83 on Reddit, the unfortunate triple-double was the first of its kind in NBA history. The only other player to have 50 points and over 10 turnovers was another Houston great in Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon.
James Harden was just two rebounds away from getting the ultra-rare quadruple-double.
While Harden had a dominant scoring game for the Rockets, he probably isn’t too happy about his statistical achievement. Turning the ball over so many times is nothing to be proud about, even if it did come with 54 points.
Additionally, the Rockets ended up losing a nail-biter in overtime, with the final score reading 135-131 in the Wizards’ favor.
Houston played without the second half of their excellent backcourt, as Chris Paul continues to deal with a leg injury. This left the majority of the ball-handling to Harden, and while he scored almost at will, the shooting guard racked up the TOs.
Eric Gordon stepped up in Paul’s absence, scoring 36 points and hitting eight three-pointers.
However, the Wizard’s backcourt had the last laugh, as Bradley Beal and John Wall combined for a whopping 68 points and 15 assists with eight turnovers.
The Rockets will continue to rely heavily on James Harden to shoulder the scoring load with Paul out. He will look to be even more efficient in his next game, a Texas showdown between the Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night.
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