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By Matt Audilet
Contributing Sports Writer
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James Harden put on a vintage performance on Wednesday night, dropping 32 points in the Cleveland Cavaliers' 115-107 win over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Entering this matchup against the reigning NBA champions, Harden was averaging just 15.3 points per game on 34.6% shooting from the field. But when speaking to reporters postgame, he reminded the NBA world that he's still the guy who once led the league in scoring for three straight seasons.
"It's my 18th year, so my name is James Harden, and I used to score a lot of points. Now it's like, all right, cool," Harden said, via ESPN. "Still score points, but try to find out other ways to impact the game as well. And I think that's what people probably don't understand."
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"I was averaging 36 and 35, whatever the case may be, people had something to say about that. 'You can't win like that.' So then I averaged 20-something, it's like, 'Can't win like that,'" Harden continued.
"So I think the most important thing for me, like, people are going to talk. So I just focus on myself, things I need to do and try to get in really good shape and learn my teammates and learn how to play a different brand of basketball, because I'm not the same fast person that I was like five or six years ago."
With Wednesday night's win over the Knicks, the Cavaliers improved to 6-6 on the year. On Friday night, they'll face off against the Miami Heat in an NBA Cup group stage matchup.
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