Vintage Harden highlights player grades from Rockets win over 76ers

James Harden made sure the Houston Rockets wouldn’t surrender another lead as he put the team on his back in the fourth quarter against the 76ers.

While it wasn’t a wire-to-wire victory, James Harden once again made sure to shut the door on another tough opponent. The Houston Rockets weren’t themselves in the first quarter, only managing to score 20 points against the tough interior defense of the Philadelphia 76ers.

It didn’t take long for the Rockets to get back on track, however, as they dropped 40 in the second quarter behind some big plays from Harden and Clint Capela. Mike D’Antoni’s club would go on to build an 18-point lead at one point before Ben Simmons led a charge for Philly that had them down by just five points with less than four minutes left in the ballgame.

That’s when The Beard decided to take over, burying two stepback threes that progressively got more ridiculous to ice the game.

The Beard is simply unfair ?#OneMission pic.twitter.com/xhLcVTlK0d

— NBA TV (@NBATV) January 4, 2020

Overall, Harden finished with 44 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds on 13-of-24 shooting and 6-of-12 from downtown. Capela also had one of the best games of his career, going toe-to-toe with Joel Embiid and still coming away with a monster 30 point, 14 rebound night.

It all added up to a 118-108 victory for the Rockets, which will leave the city of Houston happy as the team goes on a four-day break. Here’s how Harden, Capela and the rest of the team performed on Friday.

Next: The Rockets' Starters