James Harden knew he’d have to do a little more on Tuesday night with the Houston Rockets missing key players.
Even he couldn’t have imagined he’d do this much.
Harden became the first player in NBA history to score 60 points as part of a triple-double and the short-handed Rockets beat the Orlando Magic 114-107.
“I just gave it all I had tonight,” Harden said. “We all did. We all fought for 48 minutes, we got key stops when we needed to and we made big shots.”
Harden scored 18 points in the fourth quarter to eclipse the 57 points Calvin Murphy scored in 1978 to break Houston’s single-game scoring record. After Harden broke the record, cameras in the arena showed a shot of Murphy, who works on the television broadcast team, smiling and clapping for the Beard, who also had 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
The game was tied at 107 after a basket by Marreese Speights with just under four minutes to play. Neither team scored for more than two minutes after that before Harden took over, scoring the next six points to make it 113-107 with 45 seconds left.
He set the scoring mark when he stepped back and made a 3-pointer before crashing to the court after being fouled by Mario Hezonja. He then made the free throw to give him 60 points and bringing the crowd to its feet.
“Amazing (and) topped it off with a four-point play at the end,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “But we had to have every minute from him.”