INGLEWOOD — You get the feeling James Harden is really having a good time.
The 16th-year NBA vet was on social media on Thursday morning, encouraging the home crowd – “how many times do you get a first? let’s get it!” – ahead of Intuit Dome’s successful playoff debut that night, a rollicking 117-83 victory over the Denver Nuggets that gave the Clippers a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven first-round series.
Then he was on the court, controlling the action, a maestro, a system, plucking almost every note perfectly. He kicked the Clippers into high gear in the first half, with all 20 of his points on nine shots, four assists and no turnovers. He finished a team-best plus-25 in the box score, mindful, masterpiece theater.
Then he was at the postgame podium, hot under the bright lights, being asked to explain what makes the Clippers’ coaching pairing of Tyronn Lue and Jeff Van Gundy so effective. And deadpanning: “They don’t overstep each other’s toes, it’s just like yin and yang; literally the Yin Yang Twins” – a nod to the rap duo that provided Thursday’s halftime entertainment.
This is the Harden whose previous stints with other teams often ended badly, and whose playoff failings have been discussed to death – like, say, in the Western Conference finals against the world-beating Golden State Warriors in 2015, when he gave the Houston Rockets just 14 points on 11 shots with 12 turnovers, or in 2023, when he followed a 45-point monster effort with a tepid 12 points for the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round against the Boston Celtics. As if a guy who has participated in 169 career playoff games isn’t bound to have a few stinkers, as if he hasn’t also played 11 postseason games with 40 or more points and 30 with 10 or more assists.
He’s a player unafraid of controversy, whose tactics and escape plans so irked Dallas broadcaster Brian Dameris, even though Harden never played for the Mavericks, that Damaris went on a two-minute rant in 2023 after the Clippers traded for him. It concluded, “James, you’re not the beard, you’re not the system, you’re the problem.”
Except now he’s Denver’s problem. And the Clippers’ solution to just about everything.
He’s the 35-year-old former Artesia High School star who logged 1,802 minutes this season, the 10th most in the NBA. The savvy showrunner who told you he could facilitate with the best of them, finishing Thursday with nine assists and one turnover.
The elder statesman with the authority to address teammates like Ivica Zubac at halftime, when the center had eight points but had squandered two or three opportunities at the rim. To tell Big Zu: “Go dunk the ball! Finish those plays!” Whose message is well taken, resulting in Zubac shooting a more aggressive 4 for 5 in the second half and scoring 11 more points.
And then to counsel them, remind his mates: “We got a big Game 4, and this is the first time going through (a) postseason, but as long as we continue to communicate and have each other’s backs, like, good things are bound to happen for us.”
Harden has been there, done that, but he hasn’t done that. A three-time scoring champion and former league MVP, he hasn’t won the whole thing. He has played for it only once, his sole NBA Finals appearance coming as a member of the 2012 Oklahoma City Thunder.
But now that he’s here, the bearded engine who has been making the think-they-can, think-they-can Clippers go all season, he seems to like his chances.
Because it really seems that, for Harden, this team is a dream.
“Very fun,” he said. “Like, when you think about an NBA team, this is what you envision. I’ve been on several different teams and … they’re one of the coolest teams, in the sense of like everybody understands who each other is, accepts who they are and goes out there and competes. And has each other’s back.
“Knowing, ‘This is what you’re great at, this is what you’re great at, this is what your weakness is, but we can cover up for that.’ Like, we all know, and that’s what makes this team so special. … These guys know that the ball is going to get to them eventually.”
Largely because Harden is going to get it to them.
“My job is easy,” said Harden, an All-Star for the 11th time this season, who averaged 8.7 assists and had a 50-point game in a victory over Detroit in March and then a huge 39-point effort against Golden State in the regular-season finale to help keep the Clippers out of the Play-In Tournament.
“I can score, but I’m the facilitator as well,” he said. “I can understand when guys are going and when it’s time for me to exert myself. That’s the cool part about it, I’m like running the show but understanding, Zu might have it going tonight, or Norm (Powell), or ’Whi (Kawhi Leonard) might have it going. And I’m cool enough to where if those guys have it going, I can facilitate to make other guys better.”
Then he was stepping away from the dais, ready to begin Game 4 prep “now,” No. 1 looking forward to playoff game No. 2 on Saturday at Intuit – with the authority to make a request of the Clippers’ crowd, which he thought was louder Thursday than ever before: “We expected that,” he said. “But Game 4, we need it to be even louder.”