Harden is à la mode

James Harden didn’t play last night, which means the league’s other simpletons were forced to trudge on without him. And so we were forced to settle for Steph Curry’s Thursday-night high of 38 points. And for Russell Westbrook’s 23-point triple-double.

There was no 61-point explosion, like the one we witnessed from Harden on Wednesday night against the Knicks, a game that boosted his per game scoring to 36.3, a number that, if it stands, would be only behind one-namers like Wilt and Mike on the single-season scoring list.

As an NBA fan, you can only hope to be around for a special moment like this before it crystallizes, so you can claim importance by association, and so you can fire off an I watched James Harden boomerang at your nephews in 15 years, the same way your grandfather talked about the sprinkler that took out Mickey Mantle, the same way every dude from Boston older than 40 talks about “Magic vs. Buhd.”

When greatness is happening, in any sport at any level, you should just watch. And, hey!the Rockets are on ESPN tonight at 8 p.m. against the Raptors. He might get 70. Who knows.

So, go ahead and watch the way Harden contorts his body and baits mortals into fouling him, and how he sautes at the 3-point line for 20 seconds then drives and dunks in two seconds.

You should do that, really. You should not listen to shriveled grapes like Colin Cowherd, who are too deep in their own thought cave to realize sports aren’t about being a duplicitous antagonist.

Sports are about caring that a dude is averaging 43 points per game over his last 21 games, a span in which the Rockets are 16-5.

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