Competitive! Chen An saw something like this in Harden's eyes.

Chen An has warned himself countless times not to use his superficial views in his previous life to underestimate the competitiveness of a future superstar who will become the league's signature superstar, although Harden often looks lazy and lazy, not as fierce and domineering as Kobe, and does not seem to be strict enough with himself, but in fact, Harden's competitiveness is not inferior to any other player in the league.

Just like in history, when he first came from the Thunder to the Rockets, the local fans in Houston did not expect more from him than from Jeremy Lin, after all, Jeremy Lin not only won the reputation of 'Lin Crazy' with his crazy performance in the previous season, but also led the Knicks to play a wave of consecutive wins without Anthony, so that the team could finally enter the playoffs.

At that time, the local and outside media in Houston was full of comparisons between Harden and Jeremy Lin, and everyone was discussing which of the two was better suited as the cornerstone of the team, but the discussion was ended by Harden a week after the start of the regular season.

The Pistons scored 37 points in the first game of the regular season of the new season, and 45 points in the second game against the Hawks, and Harden was awarded the best player in the West in the first week of the 12-13 season in history with an average of 35.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game.

And now Harden was brought to the Magic team by Chen An, Harden was going to be the leader of the team from the beginning, he played well in the first game against the Nuggets, and the data was also very dazzling, but in the last game against the Bulls, his performance seemed to be very struggling, even if he stood up in the fourth quarter and singled Butler in a row became an important winning point in the game, but the performance of the whole game was a little unsatisfactory.

19 points, four assists, five rebounds, and four turnovers were Harden's stats against the Bulls, and while they were much better than his average stats with the Thunder last season, Lillard's career-high 33 points were much more pale.

Despite the lack of reflection on the surface, Harden is holding his breath on the inside, and he will not allow a rookie to climb on his head and steal his leadership position, so he wants to prove himself in this back-to-back game against the Timberwolves!

Through the observation of the first half of the quarter, Harden feels that this game is an excellent time, Lillard is affected by fatigue and has a poor hand, and his state is sluggish, which is normal, as a rookie, it is common for the state to fluctuate, and it is normal for him to experience back-to-back for the first time, and it is normal to be unable to play at such an intensity.

As for the other players, they were also in mediocre form, so Harden felt that he should step up and take over the game from the first quarter. That's what Harden thinks and does.

After the timeout and back on the court, Harden looked a little different, more active than he had started, and after a brief exchange with Beverley, Green and Vucevic, he ran straight to the front court, and Beverley handed the ball to Harden after holding the ball across the half court.

The Timberwolves made some changes, with Barbossa coming in for Ridno and Badinger coming in for Derek. Williams, the others didn't move.

After Harden received the ball, it was OJ Mayo who defended him, Harden did not call for a block, the other four people all pulled away in all directions, including Vucevic, Harden faced Mayo, put his center of gravity very low, constantly dribbled under his hips, and shook his shoulders back and forth.

Soon, he made a breakthrough look, as soon as Mayo's feet moved, Harden pulled back, and then stepped back and stepped on the distance outside the three-point line.

Swish!

Basketball went into the net, Harden scored three points, 17:8.

Being face-to-face ***, Mayo must be unhappy, so in the next offensive round, he wants to cross the ball and face Harden, just to answer the ball, that is, to respond to the ball, this is a kind of heads-up of the star on the court, that is, after I was scored by you, I will also return a goal one-on-one in the next return.

Mayo wanted to prove himself, but the idea was very good, the reality was cruel, he actually made a mistake in dribbling, the ball smashed on the instep and then was directly cut off by Harden, Harden then quickly pushed to the frontcourt, and the annoyed Mayo naturally quickly chased back, but Harden stuck in the position, and finally almost hung Mayo to complete the layup.

Honk!

The ball scored at the whistle, and the referee also blew for a foul on Mayo, and Harden played 2+1.

Harden hit the free throw steadily, so that the score became 17:11, and in less than a minute, Harden scored six points in a row, and the Timberwolves' coach Adelman frowned, he felt that Mayo was a little frizzy or overhead, but he still endured it and did not directly replace Mayo, he obviously underestimated Mayo's stubbornness.

In the next round, Mayo found Harden again after holding the ball, he still wanted to play an answer ball, Harden stuck very tightly this time, not giving Mayo room to project, but this guy is also smart and knows the shortcomings of his lateral speed, so he directly let go of his left hand and let Mayo break through to his left hand, which can be regarded as learning and using other people's strategies to defend him to defend Mayo.

Mayo really jumped down, and an acceleration swept Harden from the left-hand side, but the speed just got up and ran out a few steps, but saw a person blocking the breakthrough route, but it was Beverley who let go of Barbossa and predicted in advance to block Mayo's breakthrough route.

Mayo couldn't hold back his steps and bumped into Beverley, Beverley fell, the referee's whistle blew, and Mayo fouled.

Mayo was fouled twice in a short period of time, and Adelman couldn't replace him even if he didn't want to, and Nick Young replaced Mayo. This guy was arranged to play against Harden, but at the moment, Yang Shaoxia's defense is really like paper paste, no intensity, just pretentious, this guy is still on the offensive end, and wants to brush up on data.

In this way, Harden is completely open on the offensive end, three-pointers, step-back shots, European steps, empty passes, etc., Harden completely took over the offensive end of the team, combing the offense in an orderly manner, not only raising the personal offensive threat to the top, but also mobilizing teammates to score.

By the end of the first quarter, the previous margin had been erased, and the two sides were tied at 29-27, and the Magic led by two points.

Adelman was a little annoyed, but there was no way, Love and Rubio couldn't play, he didn't have enough manpower, the rotation lineup was not as good as the Magic, and there was no outside defender in the team, so he could only be pressed to the ground by Harden and rubbed. Fortunately, he has a considerable advantage on the inside, although Glen Davis is limited by Green, Pekovic still has an advantage over Vucevic, and even Greg Stisma, who came off the bench, also made a big difference in front of JJ Hickson by virtue of his height, otherwise the score would have been pulled apart.