James Harden made his return to the Cavaliers lineup on Sunday, scoring 22 points in 36 minutes—both team highs—in a 106–102 comeback win over his former team, the Nets. Harden missed two games after suffering a fracture in his right thumb, an injury that he plans to play through moving forward.
If Harden was feeing the effects of the injury, it didn’t show much on Sunday—at least in his shooting ability. He was 5-for-9 from the field, knocking down 4-of-7 threes and he got back to his old ways of racking up points at the free throw line, where he knocked down 10-of-12 shots. Harden added a team-high eight assists and grabbed nine rebounds, though he also had five turnovers. He noted after the game that his ballhandling is the biggest concern stemming from the thumb injury, but that it was “good enough” to return to the court after less than a week.
