The Houston Rockets are reeling again. After a five-game winning streak put them at 9-7, the Rockets have dipped back under .500 with a three-game losing streak.

Their 135-131 overtime loss to the Washington Wizards on Monday night was equal parts thrilling and frustrating. Houston seemingly scored at will, shooting roughly 66 percent at the rim and making 18 three-pointers at a 37.5 percent clip. Things fell apart on the other end, with Washington posting a 57/38/75 shooting split

Harden’s Big Night

No player epitomized the duality of Houston’s night more than reigning MVP James Harden. The Bearded One finished with 54 points and 13 assists, only the 25th 50-10 game in NBA history. That was the fifth 50-10 game of Harden’s career; Tiny Archibald and Russell Westbrook are the only other players with three. If you want to get really arbitrary and add in Harden’s eight rebounds and three steals, then only him, Westbrook, and LeBron James have slapped up a 50-8-10-3 game in the last 35 years.

It was a tale of two halves for Harden. In the first half, he dropped 23 points with most of those buckets coming in the paint. He also racked up eight of his 13 assists in the first quarter. Harden went into his iso bag in the second half, finishing with 31 points and five assists.

How Harden Got Cooking

Washington mostly tried to defend two-man action (pick-and-rolls or dribble handoffs) without sending an extra helper. There was a mix of “drop” coverage and outright switching. The thinking, clearly, was to try to avoid helping off a shooter and giving up twos instead. While the decision made some logical sense, Harden was so darn good that it didn’t matter.

If he got a switch against a big man, he was roasting them like a guest on Wild’N’Out. You tell me what Markieff Morris was supposed to do here:

Playing “drop” coverage against Harden typically spells death. If he’s flanked with a rim-runner like Clint Capela or Marquese Chriss (I guess that’s what he is), a lot of pressure is put on Harden’s defender to fight over the screen so Harden can’t generate a 2-on-1 situation. Harden is difficult enough to handle with his pace and craftiness. If he’s able to turn the corner, you get sequences like this:

Or this:

If he’s working with a spacer in pick-and-roll and you’re playing “drop” coverage, you’re pretty much conceding an open three if he’s able to turn the corner. This is precisely how PJ Tucker drained this above-the-break triple early in the first quarter.

And once Harden got cooking going downhill, he started draining his patented stepback. Again, there’s just no real defense for this:

Where Harden Got Into Trouble

With 54-8-13, Harden almost finished with a triple-double. If you count his 11 turnovers, he did finish with a triple-double.

Obviously, having that many turnovers is a #bad thing. He did have a game-high 121 touches, and a turnover every 11 touches isn’t far off his regular season average (a turnover per 15.2 touches). Still, not only was the total high, the timing of them couldn’t have been worse.

Harden committed five of his 11 turnovers in the fourth quarter or overtime. Fatigue played a part, but he also became quite predictable during the stretch run.

At times, he was flat-out pressing. The end of the fourth quarter was an embarrassing stretch of Harden trying to force the issue and get to the line.

The Wizards also deserve some credit, particularly in the overtime. They, and specifically Bradley Beal, did a tremendous job of making Harden uncomfortable.

They started mixing in more traps to force the ball out of Harden’s hands. This is tremen

Beal held his own by not allowing Harden to get to his left hand. He shaded him hard to his right while help defenders cheated off of Houston’s less threatening shooters to crowd the paint.

Harden was put in a tough spot. He had an even larger load to carry than usual with Chris Paul missing the game. Still, he has to be better than his 4th + overtime stat line: 14 minutes, 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting, four assists, five turnovers. He was too good through three quarters and change to falter down the stretch as he did.

Other Notes

  • It is time to welcome back Eric Gordon? After dropping 28 points against Cleveland on Saturday, Gordon drained eight three-pointers en route to a season-high 36-point performance against Washington. It feels like Gordon has been in a season-long slump. Him breaking out of it now would be huge for Houston as they try to get back on track.
  • Don’t look now, but Clint Capela is averaging a career-high 17.3 points per game this season. He finished with 17 against Washington and had some nice non-lob finishes at the basket. He’s shooting a career-high 46.3 percent from hook/floater range (3-10 feet) with nearly 25 percent of his shots coming from that area. You can tell he’s put in serious work to improve. Good for hiim.
  • PJ Tucker finished with 5 points on 2-of-7 shooting and five fouls. He also had 12 rebounds and four steals, including this strip on John freakin’ Wall after a switch:

  • Asking Danuel House to play 28 minutes after being signed that morning seems to be a bit much. It should come as no surprise that he didn’t provide much offensively (four points on 1-of-5 shooting), and though he fought hard on defense, he was promptly cooked by Wall and Beal (combined 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting).
  • Raw Plus-Minus isn’t everything, of course. But, I mean, Isaiah Hartenstein being a plus-6 in six minutes while Marquese Chriss was a minus-5 in five minutes shouldn’t surprise anyone. What exactly was the rationale for giving Chriss minutes? There shouldn’t be any confusion about his (lack of) skill set.

Photo by Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images

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