HOUSTON – Today, the NBA announced that James Harden has been named Western Conference Player of the Week for games played from Monday, Jan. 29 through Sunday, Feb. 4 (Week 16). It is the fourth time this season and the 17th time in his career that Harden has received Player of the Week honors, all coming as a member of the Rockets.
Harden helped lead the Rockets to a 3-0 mark for the week, while averaging 34.7 points, 10.3 assists, 6.0 rebounds, and 2.33 steals. Houston outscored opponents by an average 16.7 points for the week, despite being without Chris Paul for a game, Trevor Ariza for all three games, and Eric Gordon for most of the week.
Last Monday against Orlando, Harden had a career-high 60 points along with 11 assists and 10 rebounds to record the first 60-point triple-double in NBA history. He also broke Calvin Murphy’s franchise single game record of 57 points set on March 18, 1978.
For the season, Harden is averaging a career-high 31.2 points, 9.1 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 1.84 steals. He is looking to become the first player to average at least 30.0 points, 9.0 assists, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.70 steals in a single season since steals became an official statistic in 1973-74. Harden is also 11 points shy of 15,000 for his career.
Harden leads the NBA in scoring and ranks third in assists after finishing second in scoring and first in assists in 2016-17. He is on pace to join Moses Malone (31.1 ppg in 1981-82) as the only players to have averaged at least 30.0 ppg in a single season. Harden also leads the NBA in 3-pointers made with 177, which is the third-highest total through the first 51 games of a season in NBA history.
The Rockets have won 11 of their past 13 games and are 38-13 overall this season. That is tied for the best record through the first 51 games of a season in franchise history (1993-94). Houston is 22-1 when Harden, Chris Paul, and Clint Capela all play together and is outscoring opponents by an average of 14.1 point in those games.