James Harden was the star yet again as the Houston Rockets got the better of the Atlanta Hawks 109-102 in Friday's game.
Harden scored a career-high 45 points helping the Rockets to their second straight win. In just his first week with the Rockets, he topped 30 points for the second time.
"He's pretty good, I'd say," Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. "He just kept battling and playing."
Jeremy Lin who had 21 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists, said Harden was capable of making a "big time" difference. "He frees everybody up," Lin said. "He knows what he's doing. We're thankful that he showed up."
Marcus Morris scored 17 points for the Rockets while their center Omer Asik had a career-high 19 rebounds, even though he failed to pick up a single point. He missed seven shots from the field.
For the Atlanta Hawks it was Lou Williams who led with 22 points. It was his debut with the Hawks while Josh Smith scored 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Harden seems to be enjoying his new role as starter. "It's a lot different," he said. "Having the offense run basically through you, it's a lot different, but that's my job now so I've got to get used to it."
Harden also said his main focus was playing hard. He wasn't too concerned about his impressive scoring. "I don't even worry about it. I just go out there and play hard."
Atlanta had traded Joe Johnson, the six-time All-Star to the Brooklyn Nets in July in exchange of 5 players and a draft pick. Johnson was impressive with the Hawks averaging more than 20 points in 5 of his 7 seasons in Atlanta.
Hawks coach Larry Drew said: "We're still trying to establish an identity. That may take a little time to do."
It could have been anybody's game when the scores were tied at 92-92. Harden, however, made back-to-back baskets, including a 3-point play, which gave the Rockets a significant lead. Later, with just 1:55 minutes remaining, Chandler Parson's 3-pointer extended the Rockets' lead to 100-94.
Williams said about the loss: "We were just trying to put together as many stops as we could. We battled our way back into the game to even get it to that point."
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