On December 26, Beijing time, the highlight of each season of the NBA will be staged. This year, the league still arranged five focus showdowns as in previous years, and the Nets' opponent is the Lakers. However, Anthony Davis' injury and the isolation of multiple trigger health and safety protocols between the two teams made the game difficult to match expectations.
James Harden was also on the Nets' quarantine list, and whether he could participate in the year-end war was unknown. Fortunately, Harden ended the quarantine today, and he will take the remnants against the Lakers, provided that both sides can make up 8 people.
Judging from Harden's previous experience of playing the year-end war 8 times, he is also one of the big winners on this stage. In 8 year-end battles, Harden won 6. In those years, the league arranged the Texas Civil War between the Rockets and the Spurs, also arranged the drama of Harden's old lord Thunder, and the fire war, Harden left many wonderful memories for fans.
Harden's first two appearances in the year-end war were as the sixth man of the Thunder, and at that time, Harden was able to stand on the stage of the year-end war or stain kevin Durant' light. In the year-end battle of 2010, the league hoped that Durant could have a top striker battle with Cameron Anthony. In the 2011 year-end war, the league arranged a head-on confrontation between Durant and Dwight Howard. In both games, although Harden overshadowed teammate Russell Westbrook, his light was still overshadowed by Durant.
After Harden left his big brother and second brother to join the Rockets alone, he quickly became the league's top scorer, his stats soared, and the Rockets' record improved. Coupled with Howard joining the Rockets, the Rockets formed the Morden combination, and the Rockets became the darling of the league, and the League always lined up the Rockets when arranging the year-end war.
In the year-end wars of 2013 and 2015, the league arranged a Texas Civil War, and the Rockets were played against the Spurs. At that time, the Spurs were still a strong team with 60+ wins in a single season, and the Rockets were also a force to be reckoned with in the West, and it was reasonable for the league to make such an arrangement.
In that 2013 game, Harden scored 28 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists to lead the Rockets to a 111-98 victory over the Spurs. In the first three quarters, Harden's performance was tepid, and it seems that his performance was affected by the ankle injury he suffered before. But in the fourth quarter, Harden suddenly fell to heaven, firing down 16 points in a single quarter, and he once scored 11 points.
In that 2015 game, Harden scored only 20 points on 7 of 71 shots. However, the Rockets dragged the game into a muddy war, the two sides fought hard to defend, and at the critical moment of the fourth quarter, Harden suddenly took over the game, he used a three-pointer to play against Tim Duncan, and the Rockets had the upper hand.
After the game, Spurs coach Popovich was convinced of Harden, saying: "One of the three-pointers, we didn't make the right change of defense, gave Harden a chance to shoot in the empty position. The next round, he was far from the three-point line, Duncan had covered him, he hit a great shot, and those two three-pointers really changed the course of the game. ”
In 2017 and 2018, when the Rockets were the vanguard of the anti-bravery, the league did not arrange the Rockets and the Warriors in the year-end war, and in the league's view, the Warriors vs. Cavaliers, Stephen Curry vs. LeBron James, such dramas are more pleasing to the audience.
In those two years, the Rockets' opponents in the year-end war were the Thunder. The 2017 year-end war arrangement rockets to play the Thunder, when the Thunder had Westbrook, Paul George and Cameron Anthony, and the Rockets had Chris Paul and Harden. It's just that paul didn't play due to injury in that game, Harden single-handedly led the team, he only had 29 points and 14 assists on 7 of 18 shooting, but Wei Shao, George and Anthony all had excellent performances, 3 people scored a total of 75 points, and the Rockets lost 107-112.
In 2018, Harden crushed Wei Shao in the year-end battle, he scored 41 points, while Wei Shao only scored 21 points on 6 of 20 shooting but made 6 mistakes. Since Durant in 2010, Harden is the first player to score at least 40 points in a single game in a year-end war, and he is the second-highest-scoring player in a single game in a year-end war, after Durant.
In 2019, the League finally arranged the Fire Courage War in the year-end war. However, people are not as good as heaven, and the fire war has lost its previous excitement because of the changes in the personnel of both sides. On the Rockets side, Westbrook replaced Paul, and the Rockets' compatibility was a huge problem. On the Warriors side, after the tragic wave of injuries in the 2019 Finals, Durant, Iguodala, livingston left, retired retirement, Stephen Curry was injured, and the Warriors sent a broken lineup. But even so, the Rockets still lost 104-116, harden scored 24 points, 11 assists but could not save.
In this year's year-end war, the league originally arranged a big three battle between the Nets and the Lakers. As a result, the Nets Big Three still have two people in quarantine, and the Lakers' Side Davis left knee medial collateral ligament strain is absent for at least a month. Although Harden can play, considering that the Nets are isolated, Harden can only play with the remnants, and it is still unknown what kind of performance he can come up with. Harden was not in good shape this season, and now that he has been in so long of segregation, he may not be able to play the lead role in the year-end war this year.