James Harden Rumors

Fresh off dominating the third quarter, James Harden engaged in a constructive confrontation with his backcourt mate Kyrie Irving on the Brooklyn Nets’ bench. “James kind of yelled at me,” Irving said. “It’s not a negative yell, but he yelled at me, ‘Kai, get the f’ing ball!’ in the third quarter after he scored [12 points] in the quarter. I kind of took that personal. I just wanted to come out in the fourth quarter in an aggressive mindset and just play within the flow of the offense.” Irving, who was scoreless in the third quarter, responded to his co-star’s challenge by scoring 15 of his 24 points in the fourth as the Nets cruised to a 117-102 win Friday night over the San Antonio Spurs. Harden had 11 points in the final quarter, as the Nets’ superstar guards were only two points shy of matching the Spurs’ scoring total in the frame.

In the end, Irving — who had just nine points through the third quarter — put up 15 in the fourth. He shot 6-for-9 and was a plus-10 in a final period that served as a breakthrough. “For sure,” Harden said of the point guard. “For sure, it was a breakthrough. He’s capable of doing that, man, at any moment, at any point in the game. And that’s one of the reasons we need him every single game: Because he’s able to do that, especially with everything that’s going on with our team. “But he’s more than capable of doing things like that whenever he wants. I think he just tries to get us involved a little bit more. But yeah, he’s a special talent.”