{"id":302638,"date":"2025-11-23T02:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T02:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/302638\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T02:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T02:31:07","slug":"james-harden-sets-clippers-franchise-record-with-55-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/302638\/","title":{"rendered":"James Harden sets Clippers franchise record with 55 points"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — James Harden<\/a> made 10 3-pointers and scored 55 points, the most in LA Clippers<\/a> history, to help beat the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> 131-116 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

It was the 25th 50-point game in Harden’s 17-year career, tying Kobe Bryant for the third-most 50-point games in NBA history, according to ESPN Research. Charles Smith and Bob McAdoo previously held the Clippers’ scoring record with 52 points.<\/p>\n

Ivica Zubac<\/a> added 18 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists for the Clippers, who snapped a three-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

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Harden, 36, erupted for 27 points in the opening quarter on five 3s, helping the Clippers build a 14-point first-half lead and erase a fast start by the Hornets, who made seven of their first eight shots.<\/p>\n

Rookie Kon Knueppel<\/a> had 26 points to lead the Hornets, who have lost five straight. Brandon Miller<\/a> returned from a 13-game absence due to a shoulder injury and finished with 21 points.<\/p>\n

Charlotte pulled within 74-72 in the third quarter, but the momentum changed when LaMelo Ball<\/a> exited the game with his fourth foul.<\/p>\n

With Hornets center Ryan Kalkbrenner<\/a> leaving the game early with an ankle injury, the Clippers leaned on Zubac’s size advantage over Moussa Diabate<\/a> in the third quarter, resulting in back-to-back dunks. Then came Harden’s signature moment, as he drilled his eighth 3 on a step-back jumper over two defenders, drawing a foul on Diabate for a 4-point play.<\/p>\n

Harden’s 55-point outing was the 11th-highest scoring game of his career and tied for the highest-scoring game this season with leading MVP candidates Nikola Jokic<\/a> and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>. Harden’s career high is 61 points.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. — James Harden made 10 3-pointers and scored 55 points, the most in LA Clippers history,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-302638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}