CJ McCollum And James Harden Dueled As Portland Beat Houston In An Early Game Of The Year Contender

We’re mere days into the 2020-21 NBA season, but it’s hard to imagine too many games being better than the slugfest we witnessed between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Houston Rockets on Saturday night. Despite James Harden, surrounded by a myriad of trade rumors, throwing haymaker after haymaker in the way that only he can, the Blazers sneaked out a 128-126 win in overtime.

The reason this happened was in large part due to Portland’s incandescent backcourt, which is oftentimes the case whenever they win a big game. Damian Lillard was outstanding, scoring 32 points with nine assists and five rebounds. But the man of the hour was C.J. McCollum, who went blow-for-blow with Harden and eventually hit the shot that had to go in for the Blazers to come out on top.

Portland got the ball with 13 seconds remaining on the clock after a big bucket by Harden. Lillard drove to the rim and tossed it out to McCollum, who pulled up from deep and canned his career-high ninth triple of the game.

McCollum on the whole had one of the best nights of his career. He scored 44 points on 17-for-30 shooting from the field and 9-for-16 shooting from three with eight assists and three rebounds, giving Portland a much-needed counterweight to Harden. Despite the fact that Harden has had, well, let’s call it a tumultuous offseason, he showed zero signs of letting up once he steps on the floor. Harden scored 44 points on 12-for-22 shooting, doled out 17 assists, and pulled down four rebounds.

His air of inevitability showed up late in the game. Harden scored eight of the team’s 13 points in overtime and assisted the other five, with the biggest bucket coming at the very end. The former league MVP pulled out his signature, a devastating stepback triple while being checked by Robert Covington that looked like it might have sealed things for Houston.

McCollum’s bucket came on the ensuing possession, and while the Rockets got one more chance, a Harden pass was plucked out of the air by Covington to secure the win. Houston is scheduled to play 71 more games this season, while Portland has 70 more on the horizon. Still, it’s quite hard to imagine either of those teams playing a better game the rest of the year.