And you thought a couple of good games from Jaylen Brown was going to make it go away.
Nope.
The James Harden-to-the-Celtics conversation is still alive and kicking. To begin with, one day after we discovered the Rockets star had included the Celts on his list of teams he would accept a trade to, comes this nugget from ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski:
“I think there are still several teams talking with Houston about James Harden, Wojnarowski said during Friday’s 'NBA Countdown' episode. “And among teams who have had conversations, and even recent conversations, are both Brooklyn and Boston. And I think Houston feels right now that any deal they do for James Harden might need to include a third team. They are out trying to find a great young player that they can bring in as part of a trade. Any deal for Harden may be complex, may involve three, even four teams.”
And then Harden spiced things up a bit more Saturday night.
Turning back the growing narrative that Harden wouldn't be worth the price due to a lack of conditioning and disinterest, he went out and offered pretty powerful reminder why Danny Ainge might be interested.
In his first game of the season, Harden netted 44 points and 17 assists in 43 minutes against Portland. The performance comes off a four-day quarantine thanks to COVID-19 protocols.
C.J. McCollum on James Harden:
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) December 27, 2020
"James is really good. Regardless of what James does in his spare time, James is really fu*king good at basketball. Like, he’s really good."
(via @espn_macmahon)https://t.co/UZLnyN3ljO
JAMES HARDEN AGAIN. CLUTCH.
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) December 27, 2020
44 POINTS. WOW. pic.twitter.com/DWkFuvKvgG




