{"id":513864,"date":"2026-03-02T12:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T12:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513864\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T12:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T12:35:08","slug":"james-harden-thumb-returns-to-the-lineup-for-cleveland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513864\/","title":{"rendered":"James Harden (thumb) returns to the lineup for Cleveland"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Game Recap: Cavaliers 106, Nets 102<\/p>\n

James Harden returns to the Cavs lineup Sunday even while nursing a broken thumb.<\/p>\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 James Harden made a successful return for the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday. And he did it while still recovering from a broken thumb.<\/p>\n

Harden had 22 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in Cleveland\u2019s\u00a0106-102 victory<\/a> over the Brooklyn Nets. The 11-time All-Star went 4-for-7 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old Harden missed two games after\u00a0fracturing his right thumb<\/a>\u00a0during Tuesday night\u2019s\u00a0109-94 win\u00a0<\/a>over the New York Knicks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could see in the first half he\u2019s not 100 percent, obviously,\u201d Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said. \u201cI thought in the second half though he had that stretch there where we were struggling. He kind of took over, got to the free-throw line, hit a couple 3\u2019s, so that was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harden was acquired\u00a0in a trade\u00a0<\/a>with the Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 3.<\/p>\n

The 17-year veteran is averaging 19.3 points, 8.0 assists and 5.1 rebounds in eight games with Cleveland.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-5 guard had eight points in the first half against Brooklyn, and the Nets led 52-46 at the break. But Cleveland rallied in the second half.<\/p>\n

Harden made two foul shots and converted a four-point play to help the Cavs take a 70-64 lead with 4:40 left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed him tonight,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cObviously playing handicapped, he still played really well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Game Recap: Cavaliers 106, Nets 102 James Harden returns to the Cavs lineup Sunday even while nursing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,257106,590,85],"class_list":["post-513864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-james-harden-return","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513864","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=513864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}