The NBA announced that Houston Rockets guard James Harden has been named Western Conference Player of the Week for games played from Monday, Dec. 24 through Sunday, Dec. 30 (Week 11). It is Harden’s second Player of the Week award of the season and the 20th of his career, all coming as a Rocket.
The Rockets were 3-0 for the week, while outscoring oppo- nents by an average of 7.3 points per game. Harden scored 40-plus points in each of the three games, marking the longest streak of his career. For the week, he aver- aged 42.3 points, 6.3 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 1.67 steals and 1.33 blocks.
Harden opened the week by scoring a game-high 41 points vs. Oklahoma City on Christmas Day. It marked the highest point total by any player on Christmas dating back to 2011. Harden scored 28 of his game-high 45 points in the second half of the win vs. Boston on Dec. 27 and closed out the week by leading all scorers with 41 points at New Or- leans on Dec. 29.
For the season, Harden is averaging 33.0 points, which would be the highest scoring average by any player since Kobe Bryant’s 35.4 ppg in 2005-06. Harden has recorded at least 35 points and 5 assists in each of the past seven games, tying Oscar Robertson for the longest streak in NBA history. His seven-game streak of scoring 35-plus points is tied for the fourth-longest of any player since the 1976-77 NBA/ ABA merger.
Harden has also hit at least four 3-pointers in each of the past seven games, which is tied for the second-longest streak in NBA history. He leads the league with 146 3FGM overall this sea- son, which is tied for the highest total through a player’s first 32 games played in league history.
Source: nba.com/rockets
