CLEVELAND — James Harden showed in his first two games with the Cleveland Cavaliers that he can come up with the big shot and key defensive play in the clutch.
In his Cleveland home debut, Harden showed that he can be a facilitator as other players on the roster rose to the occasion.
Harden had 13 points and 11 assists in 28 minutes in the Cavaliers’ 138-113 victory over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night. He was only 1-of-4 from the field but went 10-of-12 from the foul line.
“Like I told them, I’ll figure it out. We’ll do some adjusting with each other, but for the most part, I’ll play with y’all and do what y’all been doing and I’ll find my way and they’ve been doing that,” Harden said. “So even tonight, I shoot four shots, but we win by 25 points. That’s the most important thing. And Sam [Merrill] gets it going. And I’m just here to win.
“So whatever that looks like, if I got to go out there and score a lot of points where I got to take four shots and we win, that’s the most important thing for me. And tonight was one of those examples.”
Cleveland fans made Harden immediately feel welcome. The Cavaliers handed out beards on a stick to the sellout crowd, and Harden got a standing ovation when he was introduced in pregame warmups.
“The crowd is always crazy. Every time I come here as a visitor, they’re crazy about you know, the Cavs and The Land and very loyal and they show up every single night,” he said. “It’s one of the things that I was mostly excited about. So tonight was no different.”
Harden was traded by the LA Clippers to Cleveland on Feb. 3. In his Cavaliers debut on Feb. 7 at Sacramento, he scored 17 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter of a 132-126 win over the Kings.
On Monday night at Denver, Harden hit a game-tying 3-pointer before Donovan Mitchell made a pair of free throws as the Cavaliers rallied for a 119-117 victory.
Wednesday’s game showed though that Harden can still have a big impact, even when he isn’t taking shots. His 11 assists led to 26 points.
Merrill, who had a career-high 32 points, made six baskets off Harden’s passes, including four 3-pointers, for 16 points.
“Most teams run similar stuff, so a lot of it’s just figuring out the wording of it,” Merrill said. “Today we’re watching clips of what we can do offensively and there’s three or four clips, it’s the Clippers and we’re just kind of seeing what James is doing.”
Harden has two double-doubles in his three games with Cleveland. He had 10 rebounds against the Nuggets.
Even with Harden in the lineup, it hasn’t affected Mitchell’s scoring. The All-Star guard has had at least 30 points in three straight games.
“I mean he sees the game at a different level,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t notice he only had four shots, but he’s out here creating, making plays, doing different things and then obviously his gravity, it opens the lane for everybody else and it’s just continuous. And he’s coaching on the bench in huddles and that’s why he’s here.”
The Cavaliers have won five straight and 10 of 11. They are 17-5 since Dec. 29 and have the league’s best winning percentage over that stretch at .773.
Cleveland has managed to keep rolling despite adding three new players – Harden, Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis – over the past two weeks and not having a practice to get acclimated. Merrill noted that it has mostly been film sessions and optional shootaround sessions due to the compact schedule of games.
Coach Kenny Atkinson said he is looking forward to the upcoming All-Star break to have a chance to take a breather while also looking at ways they can improve.
“I haven’t been able to dive as deep as I want to and see how we can use them better. But you know, you can see they have immediate chemistry,” he said. “We ran that one play for Sam, I don’t know, eight times and James was kind of the architect of that and him and Donovan talking. So I’ll try to look at more film, see how we can help him more. But right away we’ve had it. Some guys that really, really understand the game.”
