James Harden has been the NBA’s most unstoppable scorer this season. Riding a streak of 32 straight 30-point games coming in Monday’s matchup with the Atlanta Hawks, Harden was neck-and-neck with Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo in the MVP race, and what he’s doing to carry an oft-injured Rockets team to contention has been nothing short of incredible.
We’ve seen teams try all sorts of defensive tricks against Harden, from deep drops to bait him into floaters to hard doubles to remove the ball from his hands altogether to the Bucks’ extreme drive-first strategy that was designed to take away his lethal step-back jumper.