The last time the Lakers saw James Harden, they drove him to quit.
It was less than a month into the season when the defending NBA champions put together back-to-back blowouts of the Rockets in Houston, the second of which saw Harden simply give up in the middle of the game. The Lakers pressed their heels on the Rockets’ throats, with LeBron James memorably shooting a 3-pointer and turning around to crow at the Lakers bench before it went in.
Afterward, Harden said in a memorable press conference that his nine-season tenure in Houston was unsalvageable: “I’ve literally done everything I can. This situation is crazy. I don’t think it can be fixed.”
On Tuesday night, two days from facing the Lakers again, the 31-year-old former Artesia High standout was all smiles. Now with the Brooklyn Nets, Harden had guided his team (without Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving) back from a 24-point deficit and made the winning shot against the Phoenix Suns with 31 seconds left.
“The way we’re playing,” said Harden, who had 38 points and 11 assists in the comeback win, “and the potential we have as a team is what I’m excited about.”
One interpretation of the challenge that lies ahead of the Lakers is that the Brooklyn Nets, as stacked of an offensive team as there’s ever been, is in part a monster that they helped usher in. Not only were the Lakers the last team Harden faced with the Rockets this regular season, but their gentleman’s sweep of Houston in the second round of last year’s playoffs, with four straight wins to close out the series after losing Game 1, rippled through the organization leading to them parting ways with their head coach, their general manager and Russell Westbrook.
The dysfunction had been brewing before that series, but the Lakers helped bring the issues to the fore by decisively crushing the Rockets. Although that’s not the interpretation James has of the former MVP’s trade to Brooklyn last month.
“I don’t think it has much to do with us,” he said. “I think it has everything to do with how James was feeling. James felt like he wanted to be in a different position, different situation. He wants to win, he wants to win now and he felt like his time was over in Houston and that was all it’s about.”
One thing seems sure: Harden landed in the situation he wanted.
In the 16 games since Harden joined the Nets, the team is 11-6 and is on pace to have the best offense (120.9 offensive rating) in league history. That’s what one might expect from a team with three players who have two MVP trophies among them and have long been some of the most talented scorers in the game.
James took a “been-there, done-that” slant when asked if he could think of any team as offensively talented as Brooklyn: “Umm, have we forgot about KD, Steph (Curry) and Klay (Thompson) already?”
But the idea that the Harden-Durant-Irving tandem is on that plane definitely rocks the notion that the Lakers are undisputed favorites to repeat as champions.
Thursday’s game won’t exactly feel like a Finals preview: Both Lakers All-Star Anthony Davis (right calf strain) and two-time Finals MVP Durant (left hamstring strain) are expected to miss it. But James said he is buying the contest as a measuring stick for the Lakers.
“They got three of the best guys in the game,” he said. “Definitely would love to be full when you’re playing against a team like that and see, like, at that point in the season, how you match up – how you match up against some of the best teams in the league.”
One of the most compelling aspects of the game is the opportunity for the No. 1 defense in the league (105.2 defensive rating) to take on Brooklyn’s elite offense. In the minutes without Davis, the Lakers actually have a better defensive rating, and with perimeter defenders like Dennis Schröder, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Alex Caruso and Kyle Kuzma, they have a lot of different bodies to throw at the Nets’ scorers.
But as opposed to when the Lakers faced the Rockets in the playoffs, it will be difficult to double-team the ball out of Harden’s hands when he’s playing with other elite shooters, including Durant, Irving and sharpshooter Joe Harris. The Nets have the second-best 3-point shooting percentage (40.7 percent) in the league.
It’s less like a Finals preview and more like a teaser trailer. But everyone is aware that as the season marches along, it seems likely the Lakers and Nets will be eyeing one another from opposing coasts.
For now, they’ll skirt the issue, speaking in generalities.
“Playing the Lakers is obviously a tremendous challenge,” Nets coach Steve Nash said. “It’s a great test for us. We’ll load our guys up and be ready to go.”
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