NBA on Nov. 10: Harden reaches 16,000 points without a win

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The Houston Rockets received both good news and bad news on Saturday: James Harden became the first player from the 2009 draft to score 16,000 points in his career, yet he couldn't keep his team from losing to the San Antonio Spurs 89-96.

Can anyone ever save Rockets' offense?

The Houston Rockets again fail to score 90 points in the game on Saturday. /VCG Photo

They lost their last game on Thursday to the Oklahoma City Thunder, which did not have Russell Westbrook. The Rockets would like to take down the Spurs to avoid straight losses, especially when the Spurs had to come to the court without Rudy Gay, Pau Gasol and Jakob Poeltl. Though Houston did not have Carmelo Anthony, Eric Gordon coming back from injury should be enough to make up for that.

However, the game again turned out to be a disappointment because the Rockets remained a mess in its offense. Harden and Gordon scored 48 points, after they missed 36 shots out of 53 attempts, not to mention their 4/27 three-point rates.

James Harden #13 and Eric Gordon #10 together miss 36 shots out of 53 attempts, including 23 out of 27 three-point shots. /VCG Photo

They still did better than Chris Paul. After three consecutive games in which he put down nothing in the first half, Paul finally made some changes by scoring 13 points, including two three-pointers made out of three attempts after the first two quarters. Nonetheless, that's all Paul got as he moved the disappointing scoring-nothing performance to the second half.

According to Tencent Sports, this was already Paul's fourth game in a row that he finished with a field-goal rate of under 37 percent, which was the second worst in his career. So far in this season, Paul could make 16.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 2.5 steals per game but with horrible rates of 39.3 percent for field goals and 27.1 for three-pointers, after he signed a four-year 160-million-US-dollar deal with Houston in the summer.

Chris Paul has been disappointing since the beginning of the 2018-19 regular season. /VCG Photo

Even though Harden reached 16,000 points in this game, faster than anyone else selected in the 2009 NBA Draft (including Stephen Curry), he might not be happy because the MVP of last season was going through a terrible season himself. In the eight games he has played so far, Harden scored an average of 26.4 points with 41.4 percent of FG rates and 36.1 percent of 3-pt rates. Even his free throw rates fell to 76.1 percent. By comparison, in the 2017-18 season, Harden could score an average of 30.4 points with 44.9 percent of FG rates, 36.7 percent of 3-pt rates and 85.8 percent of free throw rates.

In fact, like their core players, the Rockets as the whole team did not score like they did in the last season. Back in 2017-18 regular season, Houston was the second-best offense team with 112.4 points per game. Today that number fell to 101.5 points, which only ranked 29th of all 30 teams in the league.

The Rockets become a totally diferent team in offense as they are the second-best scoring team last season but the second-worst scoring team this season. /VCG Photo

Considering that Houston's average assists per game only fell from 21.5 to 19.9, the team's style remained the same but somehow they just could not put the ball into the basket. It's true that there were 82 games in the regular season, but a team like the Rockets could afford to lose seven in 11 games, especially when they are in the Western Conference where every game may decide whether a team can make it into the playoffs.

Lou Williams makes buzzer beater in overtime

Louis Williams #23 makes a 0.3-second game-winning shot to help the Los Angeles Clippers defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 128-126. /VCG Photo

Having beaten the Golden State Warriors by 23 points on Thursday, the Milwaukee Bucks came to the Staples Center on Saturday, expecting their second straight win. However, they lost their third game in the season 126-128 to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Clippers did not show any fear confronting the No.2 ranking team from the Eastern Conference and started the game with a 6-0 run. By contrast, the Bucks missed all of their first seven shots, including a dunk by Giannis Antetokounmpo. The home team led 33-24 after the first quarter.

Montrezl Harrell scores the Clippers' highest 26 points. /VCG Photo

The Clippers began the second quarter again with a 9-3 run, expanding their lead to 15 points. Milwaukee then suddenly found the target outside the 3-pt line as Brook Lopez made four three-pointers in a row. After Khris Middleton put in another three-pointer when there were two minutes and 15 seconds, the Bucks finished a 33-11 run and later led 64-62 after the first half.

After four minutes of stand-off in the third quarter, Milwaukee fell into scoring drought again to watch the Clippers take back the lead with a 7-0 run and lead 89-84 into the fourth quarter. The Bucks kept chasing from behind for 12 minutes until Eric Bledsoe tied the score 119-119 with a three-pointer to drag the game into overtime.

Giannis Antetokounmpo takes the court's highest 27 points and 18 rebounds but cannot avoid the loss for the Bucks. /VCG Photo

Though Antetokounmpo continued his dominating performance in OT by blocking Danilo Gallinari's shot and then tied the score 126-126 with a dunk, the Clippers refused to put on the same scenario. Louis Williams made a 0.3-second game-winning shot to seal the victory for LA.

The Clippers had six players score double digits as Montrezl Harrell from the bench got the highest 26 points. The Bucks though had three with 20+ scoring performance including Antetokounmpo's 27 points + 18 rebounds, they could not prevent Milwaukee's third straight loss to the Clippers.

John Wall #2 finally leads the Washington Wizards to their second win of the season after they beat the Miami Heat 116-110. /VCG Photo

Other games on Saturday included: (away teams come first)

New York Knicks 112-128 Toronto Raptors

Phoenix Suns 99-119 New Orleans Pelicans

Washington Wizards 116-110 Miami Heat

Cleveland Cavaliers 98-99 Chicago Bulls

Philadelphia 76ers 106-112 Memphis Grizzlies

Brooklyn Nets 100-116 Golden State Warriors

Oklahoma City Thunder 96-111 Dallas Mavericks

Los Angeles Lakers 101-86 Sacramento Kings