LOS ANGELES — James Harden wants to be an All-Star again — he made his case on Saturday night.
A vintage Harden dropped 40 points on an outstanding Bucks defense, breaking them down, getting into the paint, hitting stepback 3s, and getting to the foul line all game long.
“It would mean a lot, you know?” Harden said of possibly being selected as an All-Star reserve by the coaches (he was not voted a starter). “I think it would be my 10th or 11th [Note: It would be his 11th] and just being one of the top 24 players in this league. I feel like I deserve it, but I’m not going to go on a campaign for myself. I just go out here and put the work in and it is what i t is.”
Harden made his case by sparking the Clippers to a 127-117 win that snapped the Bucks’ five-game win streak. Despite that, he’s a longshot to be named an All-Star reserve (who are selected by a vote of the coaches, those choices will be announced Thursday). The West is very deep with quality guards, as evidenced by the fact Harden finished seventh in the All-Star starters vote.
That doesn’t mean the respect from his peers has faded.
“You got a group of guys in the league right now that are on that list of 75 greatest players,” Damian Lillard said. “And I think in the era that we in right now, you got people on the internet and people in the media and people on TV that they don’t watch games. They just throw out stuff, and they talk bad about players, and they make it appear as if guys can’t get it done anymore.
“And I think tonight, you see a guy like James come out, and you see that he’s capable, getting 40, making plays, still drawing fouls, still hitting threes off the dribble, getting in the paint. It’s a reason why he’s one of the greatest players to play the game, and you got to respect it and just understand that he’s capable of having these types of games.”
He had one of those games Saturday night and the Bucks paid the price.
