It was a big night for the wrong team as James Harden lit up the Chicago Bulls to pass up Hall-of-Fame forward Scottie Pippen on the all-time scoring list.
The Chicago Bulls came out with a flat effort on Nov. 9 in a home loss at the United Center against the Houston Rockets. Thanks to a poor showing on offense, the Bulls weren’t able to keep up with the high-pace offense and scoring of the Rockets. One player for the Rockets that absolutely went off against the Bulls on Saturday night was the former NBA MVP and superstar shooting guard James Harden.
In that tragic 117-94 loss to the Rockets over the weekend, the Bulls didn’t get much of any scoring from their backcourt. The big win they raked in on Nov. 6 on the road against the Atlanta Hawks didn’t seem to have any momentum that carried over against the Rockets.
The best showing from any Bulls player in the loss to the Rockets came from center Wendell Carter Jr., who amassed 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and grabbed 16 rebounds. Small forward Chandler Hutchison was also big for the Bulls with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field in his first start of the season.
But the biggest performance of the night came from Harden. He shot nearly 50 percent from the field and just shy of that from three-point range too. That shooting performance led him to get 42 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists, and 2 steals.
The big scoring night from Harden allowed him to have a milestone moment in an interesting spot. It was a bit ironic how he passed the Bulls all-time great forward Scottie Pippen on the NBA’s all-time scoring list (for 58th) after his 42 point outing.
According to Eric Woodyard of ESPN, Harden passed Pippen on the all-time scoring list but it wasn’t the most important part of the night for him. Apparently he was most pleased by the Rockets defensive efforts, as they were one of the NBA’s worst heading into this game.
That is an interesting take from Harden, but he is lighting the NBA on fire with his scoring pace over the past two seasons. The 2017-18 NBA MVP is averaging around 36 points per game this season, which would put him on a similar pace to what he was doing last season.
Yet, the point here for the Bulls is that the play on the court has to get better through and through. The Rockets are a good team, but the Bulls were once again embarrassed on their home court. Head coach Jim Boylen has to make the necessary adjustments, and soon.
The Bulls can’t get dominated in all aspects of the game, like they did against Harden on his milestone night. But even Harden wasn’t the only Rockets players that went off.
Another big night for the Rockets came from center Clint Capela, who dominated the boards with 20 rebounds. Capela also added one assist, 16 points, and four blocks to his stat line. He and Harden just absolutely lit up the stat sheet against the hapless Bulls.