NBA Thanksgiving 2019: What each team has to be thankful for

Houston Rockets

James Harden’s scoring barrage

Nobody in the modern era has averaged as many points per game as James Harden is putting up on a nightly basis so far in 2019-20. Wilt Chamberlain has the three highest-scoring seasons in NBA history (50.4 PPG, 44.8 PPG and 38.4 PPG), but those came back in the early ’60s.

Through 17 games, Harden is averaging an absurd 37.9 points, 8.0 assists and 6.1 rebounds per game, and what’s crazy is he could easily be averaging 40 a night once his field goal percentage (43.6 percent) and 3-point percentage (33.8 percent) revert closer to his usual averages.

The key has been getting to the foul line a career-high 14.2 times per game, where he’s shooting 86.3 percent. Russell Westbrook hasn’t been the home run acquisition Daryl Morey was looking for, and the Houston Rockets‘ defense is a major concern, but man, the Beard is absolutely unstoppable right now.