James Harden’s historic night: Drops 60 in triple-double

James Harden makes history on Tuesday night with a win over the Orlando Magic

No Chris Paul for Houston? No problem. James Harden made history on Tuesday night as the Rockets earned a hard-fought victory over the Orlando Magic 114-107. The Beard dropped the first ever 60-point triple-double, tallying 60 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds on the night. Harden more than made up for CP3’s absence as he accounted for 86 of his team’s 114 points.

Harden shot an astonishing 19-for-30 from the field (5-for-14 from three) as he led his team in scoring by more than five times the next player. His 60-point triple-double is the first in NBA history, and he joins Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook with the most 50-plus-point triple-doubles with three each. Only eight times have players tallied a 50-point triple-double, and Harden has accounted for nearly half of those.

The Beard took a giant leap toward his first MVP trophy after being as close as can be in two of the last three seasons. However, with the Cavaliers struggling, the Warriors being overloaded with superstars and the Rockets heating up, Harden will likely emerge as the frontrunner — if he hasn’t already — in coming weeks.

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Harden is on track to be the NBA’s scoring leader in 2017-18 as he’s the only player averaging over 30 points per game thus far. Despite the arrival of Paul, Harden hasn’t seemed to miss a step. How about that for those who said they couldn’t play together? The Beard is also averaging an astonishing 9.0 assists per game.

The Rockets, under Harden’s leadership, currently sit second in the Western Conference, with a comfortable lead over the third-seeded Spurs. In recent weeks, though, it seems as if the Rockets are in a league of their own. If people weren’t paying attention to the Rockets after their most recent win over the Warriors, maybe now they’ll take notice.