James Harden, Another explosive scoring game on Monday, scoring 34 points in 31 minutes.

Hardens.

New teammate Christian would another 20 point game of his own, but the Nuggets won this decisively.

Guys, Houston Owing to as they wait for John Wall and DeMarcus cousins to rejoin the team, James spoke postgame on the process of his team's improvement.

Take a listen.

Everything you need practice, you need rips.

Uhh.

You know the drill.

Things you need to keep going over things and just, you know, we're still in our in our heads.

So we were out there in the games.

You know?

We're not over thinking, you know, we were supposed to be defensively and offensively, and at that point, it just execute.

Yeah, So Zach James not tipping a lot in his public comments?

Do you think that hardens should be encouraged by the Rockets first two games, especially considering they're missing the guys that they are?

I mean, we haven't seen their riel team yet, so it's hard to know, right?

You mentioned all the guys that they're missing, but, uh, they're dead last in defense after two games.

I know it's only two games, but they just haven't been competing on defense.

They've had a lot of communication errors, and maybe it is just the jumbled personnel.

But Denver just picked them apart last night, toyed with them, just absolutely toyed with them.

That's discouraging, and I don't know how fixable that is.

Do you see a really good defensive team in here?

I personally don't, And their effort in the first two games has not been that great.

But the one sign of encouragement is Christian Would is a stud, and Christian would is the best pick and roll partner, the most versatile pick and roll partner James Harden has ever had.

Unless you count Kevin Durant, who is on a different universe, Christian, what is that?

Good?

And if some of the supporting pieces come together, he and James is the centerpiece of an offense that could be really dynamic and really hard to guard.

But it just doesn't seem like they have the spirit right now.

I mean, when you're last in defensive lasted defense.

Yeah, I mean, point blank said it.

When you're last in defense, you are right.

But you know the one thing about it.

You have DeMarcus cousins coming back.

You have John Wall.

So their impact players guys who could make a difference can help you offensively, defensively, I don't know, but, you know, for them they're gonna have to get out and run.

And obviously, that's what John Wall can do and get up and down the court, get to the basket in transition and make plays.

So, uh, defensively is gonna be the question.

They're gonna have to outscore, um, teams toe win, which we've seen them do.

Um, James Harden has shown that he's he's informed he's ready to go.

It's just that's gonna be the question all year.

Christian would let me.

Let me just say, First of all, the pistons, let him go.

I don't know why, but it is a great pick up free Christian, and hopefully, hopefully it Z something that is encouraging that can keep James around and motivated for throughout the year.

Well motivated certainly is part of the big question.

Right When you're last in defense, Zach notes, at least a component of that is effort, right?

And it just speaks to the team spirit, and I'm not singling out any one player here.

I'm talking about the entire team personally.

It is my hope that James gives this team a little bit of a chance when John Wall and Boogie and some of their other guys come back, because this could be a really, really intriguing roster.

And James has two years left on his contract, plus a player option, but the two years so he does not have ultimate say of where he would be traded to.

It's not a situation where he is just a few months left, so teams don't want to trade for them him him.

Unless there's a guarantee that he'll sign a longer deal, he could get sent anywhere to a team that isn't as good as the team he has right now.

So I hope some of that spirit that motivation can come in the next couple weeks because it would be interesting to see this Rockets team as currently constituted, to find out what they can dio and who they can be.

Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.