James Harden is playing a level of iso basketball that we've never seen before. In his last five games, he's racked up 261 points -- and all of them are unassisted. He's turning in a solid bid for MVP, and ever since injuries to Chris Paul and Clint Capela, he's decided he'll do everything himself. You could say that it's going well.

That streak continued on Wednesday, with Harden putting up an utterly ridiculous 61 points in another dominant performance against the Knicks in Madison Square Garden. He only made five of his 20 shots from deep, but Harden shot 25 free throws, knocking down 22 of them. He was 17-of-38 from the field despite his poor performance from beyond the arc, and the Rockets walked out with a 114-110 win. The Rockets, however, have alternated wins and losses since 2019 began. With a Friday game against the Raptors, they'll try to break the streak.

On Thursday's "Off the Bench," Danny Kanell and Raja Bell talk about Harden's outrageous success, and they focus in on his performance at MSG. They praise Harden's game, but Bell takes issue with Harden's style from a teaching standpoint. Bell thinks that what Harden's doing is unique, and he fears it could encourage kids watching to play more iso-ball rather than playing the game in a sustainable way. It doesn't make what Harden's doing any less impressive, it's just not the best brand of basketball to watch.

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