What Happened to James Harden’s Minutes Restriction in Houston?
Leading up to Monday night’s matchup between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Houston Rockets, the ten-time All-Star James Harden was upgraded to questionable for the first time in 14 games.
After going down with a tendon strain in early November, James Harden anticipated a month-long recovery timetable. With the recovery going as planned, Harden targeted the Monday night matchup in Houston as his official return date last week.
Following a practice session on Sunday, Harden all but confirmed he was going to play on Monday. A couple of hours before tip-off in Houston, the Sixers activated the star guard for the first time in over a month.
Considering it’s been a while since Harden played in a game, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers mentioned that the star guard would be on a minutes restriction for the night. In the nine games Harden played earlier this season, he averaged 37 minutes on the floor prior to his setback.
In the first quarter of Monday’s game, Harden spent nearly nine minutes on the court in the opening period, which was typical. In the second quarter, he played for five minutes, ending the first half with a little under 14 minutes of playing time.
It seemed Harden’s night would be capped around the 30-minute mark based on how much he played in the first half. In the third quarter, Harden checked in for just four minutes, but then he ended up playing the entire fourth quarter. Had the game ended in regulation, Harden would’ve finished the night with 18 points, seven assists, and four rebounds in 30 minutes. However, the Sixers and the Rockets needed overtime to settle the score.
It’s unclear what the initial plan was for Harden minutes-wise on Monday, but Doc Rivers admitted they went off-script as the game needed multiple overtime periods to find a winner.
Harden appeared in eight of the additional ten minutes of free basketball on Monday. He finished the night with 38 minutes of playing time. Despite coming off a month-long layover, Harden exceeded more than 37 minutes for the fifth time this season on Monday.
“He looked fine, that’s why we left him in,” Rivers explained after the game. “We kept checking. The game, surprisingly, was not played at a very high pace. We thought it’d be more of this, and it wasn’t, so we decided to keep him on the floor.”
Harden was understandably rusty on Monday night, draining just 21 percent of his shots from the field. Considering he didn’t deal with any setbacks related to his foot, the unexpectedly high amount of minutes on Monday likely served as a good opportunity for Harden to get into better game shape.
Now, the star guard will get a couple of days worth of practice before the Sixers take the court again on Friday night to face the Los Angeles Lakers at home.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.
