詹姆斯.哈登与克林特.卡佩拉强势带领火箭大比分1-0领先森林狼

HOUSTON -- The critics James Harden claims not to hear won’t be hushed by a spectacular performance in the series opener of the first round. For Harden, now more than ever, the playoffs are about how he finishes, not how he starts.

休斯顿电-作为季后赛开赛的第一场，哈登在本场的惊艳表现让那些指责他的声音安静了下去。而对哈登来说，远不止这些，季后赛关乎到的是他如何结束，而并非如何开始。

But Harden looked every bit like the MVP he will probably soon be during the Houston Rockets’ 104-101 Game 1 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

但是在本场比赛G1中，休斯顿火箭以104-101赢得明尼苏达森林狼之后，哈登在场上的点点滴滴都让人觉得他大有可能是本赛季MVP。

And the Rockets, record-setting 3-point gunners whose long-range touch (outside of Harden) failed them Sunday night at the Toyota Center, needed that kind of performance from their superstar -- a player who infamously no-showed as Houston’s season ended on its home court last May.

对于火箭来说，他们的三分大队于星期日在丰田中心集体哑火（哈登除外），他们需要那种超级巨星的表现来拯救他们，而这个人就是那个上赛季五月份在休斯顿季后赛主场以声名狼藉无所作为而结束的球员。

Harden torched the Timberwolves for 44 points on 15-of-26 shooting, including 7-of-12 from 3-point range. The rest of the Rockets made only 3-of-25 3-point attempts -- a rare 12 percent brickfest for a team that broke its own one-year-old record for 3s made in a season -- but Harden was simply too good to let eighth-seeded Minnesota start the series by sneaking out an upset.

哈登对阵森林狼26投15中，得到44分，其中包括12投7中的三分球。而火箭的其他球员三分球25投仅中3---命中率仅有可怜的12%，打破了自己一年前糟糕的三分记录---但哈登出色的发挥让排名第八的种子号选手明尼苏达在本系列赛开赛之初默默地铩羽而归。

"Another day for James," Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said of the NBA’s season scoring leader. "He’s done it all year. He really stepped up. We were struggling to make shots, struggling to really have any kind of rhythm of play, and James put us on his back. He’s been doing it for a while now."

“非凡的詹姆斯”，火箭队主帅德安东尼谈到本赛季得分王时说道，“他本赛季一直都在这么做，他确实这么做了。我们当时的投篮很挣扎，在比赛节奏上的确很挣扎，哈登把我们拉回了到了正确的节奏。他现在一直都在这么做。”。

Time after time, "The Beard" hit big shots when momentum seemed to be swaying to Minnesota’s side. Soon after the Timberwolves took a lead midway through the fourth quarter, Harden re-entered the game and immediately went on a do-it-himself 7-0 run, hitting a floater off the glass, driving for a layup and drilling a pull-up 3 in transition.

当势头将要偏向明尼苏达时，“大胡子” 一次又一次地以远投得分予以回应。第四节开始不久，森林狼队取得了领先，但当哈登重新上场之后，立刻以一己之力7-0予以还击，一个打板抛投、一次强突篮下以及一次快速转换后撤步三分。

At that point, after Minnesota head coach Tom Thibodeau called timeout, Harden strutted down the center of the court and pointed to the hardwood as if to remind everyone that this is his house.

随后，明尼苏达主教练汤姆.锡伯杜叫了暂停，哈登昂首阔步走向球场中心，双手指向地板，似乎在提醒那里的每一个人，那是他的地盘。

That transition 3 was the rare occasion when the Timberwolves made a defensive miscue to give Harden an easy look. Most of the 3s he made were contested stepbacks, the unstoppable shot that vaulted the league’s most lethal isolation scorer to another level this season. When Minnesota crowded Harden enough to take that away, he dominated on drives, feeding center Clint Capela for several dunks in the first half and feasting on layups in the second.

那个转换三分，是明尼苏达对哈登做了误判防守，让他有机会瞄了篮筐。除此之外，哈登的大部分三分都是对抗后后撤步投射，本赛季哈登在弧顶难以阻挡的投射成为联盟最具致命的单打得分手段。当明尼苏达选择包夹哈登时，他就主宰了比赛，在后半节比赛中，哈登多次给内线支柱克林特.卡佩拉喂球重扣，以及后半节比赛助攻卡佩拉上篮得分。

"He’s an MVP candidate and you know why," Timberwolves power forward Taj Gibson said. "Every time the game was mano y mano and they were in a tight spot, he just took over the game. He made some tough shots. He just played phenomenal tonight. We were trying to throw everything at him."

“他是MVP候选人，你知道为什么。”，森林狼大前泰.吉普森说。“本场比赛中，他就是那个马努，马努，他们高度专注，哈登接管了比赛，完成了一些高难度投篮。他今晚的表现是现象级的，我们尽力防守了。”。

The first step in that journey featured Harden at his best. He forced nothing but, in the words of Butler, "got whatever he wanted in that game." On an off shooting night for most of his teammates, Harden was in complete control, comfortable under the playoff pressure.

这场比赛已开始哈登就全力以赴了。用巴特勒的话说，他什么也没做，“却已得到他所想要的。”。在这个队友集体哑火的夜晚，哈登完全管控了比赛，顶着赛场的压力显得很舒服。

"If you have that aggressive mindset, good things will happen," Harden said. "If they gave me space enough to get my shot off, I shot it. If they were pressuring me enough to get by them to make a play for myself or somebody else, then I did that. Whether it’s tonight, whether it’s 82 regular season games, I’m going to do the same thing."

“如果你想着打出侵略性，好事就来了！”，哈登说到。“如果他们放我投篮，我就出手。如果他们选择逼迫包夹，我能过掉他们就就过掉，要不就传给其他队友，我做到了。无论是今晚，还是那82场常规赛，我一直都在做同样的事儿。”

The Rockets need Harden to do it 15 more times.

火箭需要哈登有15次昨晚的惊艳表现。