DENVER • Going into Wednesday night's game at the Denver Nuggets, James Harden had looked superhuman.
The 2018 Most Valuable Player, averaging 39.5 points in the first 14 games, was putting up numbers not seen since National Basketball Association (NBA) great Wilt Chamberlain in the early 60s.
But while he had been expected to continue his hot streak and prolong the Houston Rockets' winning run to nine, Denver were themselves in form.
The hosts had six wins in seven games and have the league's fifth-best defence, according to nba.com, and they were never going to give the star guard free rein on their Pepsi Centre home court.
While their strategy was simple - contain Harden at all costs by double-teaming him - they also had to avoid giving away fouls against a team with the league's most free-throw attempts (28.9 per game).
And they did just that, beating the Rockets 105-95 to end their eight-game winning streak.
This was the first time the visitors, who had 20 turnovers, had scored fewer than 100 points this season and they also went to the line only 25 times, their third-lowest this campaign.
Harden ended with a team-high 27 points, but it was his first time in nine games that he failed to score 30 or more - and his lowest tally since contributing 19 in the (11-4) season opener.
It was a collective effort from the Nuggets (10-3), who were led by a season-high 27-point display from Serbian centre Nikola Jokic, while their four other starters also finished in double figures.
Coach Michael Malone hailed his players for executing to perfection their strategy on the league's top scorer, whose average dipped slightly to 38.4 points.
He told the NBA website: "We gave him different looks and got the ball out of his hands.
"Twenty-nine assists and our assist-to-turnover ratio is one of the best in the NBA right now, so we're coming along nicely."
Of their hatchet job on Harden, Malone also told the Denver Post: "He's seen every conceivable defensive coverage, and he demands that kind of attention.
"I've been in the league 19 years, no disrespect to all the other great players in those 19 years, but he's the toughest guy to prepare for.
"You want to force him left? He's going to beat you. You want to force him right? He can still beat you... it's like watching a horror movie because he's that talented a player."
REUTERS
