NBA Halloween: Playing trick-or-treat with each team’s early season trend

Houston Rockets

James Harden isn’t the same with Russell Westbrook on his team: Trick

The Beard got off to a rough start in his first couple of games with Russell Westbrook in the fold. In the Houston Rockets‘ season opener, he shot 2-for-13 from the field, including 1-for-8 from deep. He tallied 29 points in the second game, but they came on 8-of-29 shooting, including a dismal 2-for-18 from deep. His shooting struggles continued even as he dropped 40 points on the Oklahoma City Thunder, going 8-for-21 from the floor and 3-for-14 from deep.

Westbrook’s production hadn’t really changed much, but it was only natural to question whether James Harden was having trouble adjusting to Russ handling the rock so much. The truth was, though, that he was still taking most of his 3s the same way he always had: pulling up off the dribble. That hadn’t stopped him from starting his season 6-for-40 from deep (15 percent).

https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1189777519144308736?s=20

Luckily, it was probably just a feeling-out process, because the Beard bounced back in his fourth game with 59 points on 18-of-32 shooting, including 6-for-14 from beyond the arc. Russ was never going to shoot better than Harden from 3 all season long, and they were always going to find a way to make this work. The Rockets are 3-1 so far, and if both Harden and Westbrook find a way to post gaudy numbers together, this team could very well win 60 games.