Two of the NBA’s best teams face off when James Harden and the Houston Rockets visit Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. There is little doubt that the Rockets are hot. They have won nine of their last 10 games and are now leading the Southwest Division. It took a bit of time for these guys to hit their stride but they’ve finally done so. A big part of their success has been the play of Harden, who has been scoring at a break-neck pace. He has recorded 40 points or more in five of Houston’s last nine games and has notched over 40 points in each of his last three. He has averaged 35.9 points per game throughout December and there are no indications that he will slow down any time soon.
The Warriors have propelled themselves into first place in the Pacific Division but they have been struggling to find consistency. Just when it looks like they are heating up and about to go on a run, they let their fans down with a couple of bad games. It’s no secret that the Warriors are a very talented team and that Curry is a big part of it. However, there are a lot of mouths to feed on this squad and the scoring is spread out mainly between Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Curry. It’s much different in Houston where James Harden averages twice as many points as the number two point producer, Clint Capela.
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One thing that is for sure is that these teams bless basketball fans with a lot of entertainment when they meet up. Their epic battle during the 2017-18 playoffs was one for the ages. It’s a little strange that both of these teams can pile up the points, but 11 of the last 14 games between these teams have gone under the posted total. The games are usually low scoring. In the only regular-season game between these two teams this year, Houston held Golden State to under 90 points, an extreme rarity. Of course, the fact that Curry did not play in that one might have helped Houston immensely.
So now we pose the million dollar question. Who will score more points when these two rivals meet on January 3rd? Harden or Curry? After averaging 33 points per game in October, Curry got injured and missed the bulk of November. Upon his return on December 1st, Curry tallied 27 points against the Pistons and went on to average 27.6 points in December. His most productive games of the month came against Cleveland and the Clippers. He posted 42 points in both of those games. Outside of those games, Curry has eclipsed the 30-point plateau just four times in his other 12 December games. In last year’s seven-game playoff series against Houston, Curry averaged 25 points per game. His highest output was 35 points and his lowest was 16. During the regular season, Curry scored 22, 29, and 19 points for an average of 23.3 points per game.
In Houston’s first and only meeting against Golden State this year, Harden tallied 27 points. His average points per game in November was 31.3 and it jumped to 35.9 in December. In last year’s playoff series against Golden State, Harden averaged 28.7 points per game with a high of 41 and a low of 19. During the 2017-18 regular season, Harden scored 27 points in his first games versus Golden State. He missed the second meeting before scoring 22 in the third matchup a couple of days after returning from injury.
The bottom line is that Curry will be lucky to score 30 points against Houston, while Harden would have to be quite unlucky to not score 30. Harden is playing with a hot hand and betting on Curry to outscore Harden on January 3rd would be a great waste of money.
