“Good 1st Step”: The Arrival of James Harden Strengthens The Houston Rockets Ahead of NBA Restart

While all of the 22 teams landed in Orlando last week, there were some guys missing from the list. Not all players were able to make the trip with the team and had to stay back for personal reasons. Likewise, it has been almost a week since the Houston Rockets touched down at Orlando, but their best player James Harden just made his entry into the bubble. 

The two-time NBA scoring champion arrived a few days late to the bubble, but we don’t know exactly for what reasons. However, Harden entered the Orlando bubble on Tuesday night and the Houston Rockets twitter page informed us all by posting, “The Beard has arrived.”

James Harden certainly made a grand entry into a bubble, a much-needed relief for Houston fans. One of the team’s superstars, Russell Westbrook tested positive for COVID-19 a few days ago, which means he can’t enter the bubble anytime soon. Thus, having Harden for the moment is the best possible scenario they can hope for. 

However, before joining his team, ‘The Beard’ has to go into isolation and register three-consecutive negative tests. While there were rumors flying around about the 2018 MVP catching the virus, he seems to have buried all of that by making his entry into the bubble. 

Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni comments on James Harden joining the team

Well, Mike D’Antoni can rejoice as the Rockets’ franchise player has arrived at the NBA bubble. The arrival of Harden is certainly a major boost to the team, for he is the current scoring leader as well. Coach D’Antoni is certainly excited about Harden’s entrance and here is what he had to say on it, as per Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston: 

“Really happy that James is here,” D’Antoni said. “Now we’ll just wait for the team to be completely whole with Russell (Westbrook) & Luc Mbah a Moute (arriving). Good 1st step.I’m just really glad that James is here.”

The Houston Rockets enter the bubble as the sixth seed in the competitive western conference. They are almost on level terms with the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Dallas Mavericks. Both teams share the same number of victories as the Houston franchise. When the seeding fixtures begin, it will be extremely competitive to see who would clinch the third spot in the conference. The top two spots are already secured by the two LA teams. 

The return of James Harden would be certainly be celebrated by the Rockets. Moreover, on the same note, they would also be hoping for Russell Westbrook to be cleared of the virus soon. The Russ and Harden combination worked quite well for Mike D’Antoni this season. If they find their rhythm once again, the Rockets are definitely a challenging team to beat.