James Harden shared the floor with his teammates on Thursday for the first time in over four months, and it looked like never missed a beat.
"He looked good," Rockets head coach Mike D'Antoni said. "He was probably rusty for about 30 seconds. He played well today."
Harden cited family reasons as the explanation for why he was not on the Rockets flight to Orlando on July 9. He arrived on Tuesday and after self-quarantining for 36 hours joined the Rockets for their fifth practice since entering the NBA's Disney World campus.
"Today was amazing just to have him back out there," Rockets guard Ben McLemore said. "It felt great."
D'Antoni said on Wednesday that he planned to slowly work Harden back into things and that he wouldn't participate in five-on-five drills until Sunday. That plan was scrapped. Harden took part in everything just like the rest of his teammates, and D'Antoni admitted Harden showed up to Orlando more ready than he thought he would.
"He's been going hard before he got here. I didn't see any difference whatsoever. Now, we'll watch tomorrow and if he's sore or something else, then maybe we'll back him off, but right now he's full-tilt and looks like he's ready to go."
Harden was just glad to be back out on the floor.
"Today was actually the first time that I actually played pickup, some five-on-five contact in over a month.
"It felt really good today. I think pushed myself through it today, and every single day just continue to get better at it."
The Rockets first scrimmage is July 24 against the Toronto Raptors, and they will restart their season July 31 against the Dallas Mavericks.
