Clippers' James Harden reaches 25,000 career points, becomes third active player to hit milestone

Clippers’ James Harden reaches 25,000 career points, becomes third active player to hit milestone

Los Angeles Clippers star James Harden hit another milestone in his historic career on Thursday night when he reached 25,000 career points during the team’s matchup with the Golden State Warriors. Harden is the third active player to join the 25K club and the 24th player all-time. He remains 24th on the all-time scoring list.

In the middle of the third quarter, Harden was controlling at the top of the key and waited for a screen from Ivica Zubac. Though not exactly the most effective pick of all time, it gave Harden just enough of a step to get downhill and into the paint, where he side-stepped around Dario Saric for a bucket.

Harden entered the game already alone in 24th on the all-time scoring list, but he won’t be there long. He’s now 192 points behind Jerry West in 23rd and 279 points back of Reggie Miller in 22nd. His scoring has been a bit inconsistent in this Clippers set-up, but even so, he should surpass both of those players in the next 15-20 games. Looking further up the list, Kevin Garnett in 19th is probably as high as he could get this season; he needs another 1,071 points to get there.

In addition to his scoring accolades, Harden is one of the best playmakers of his generation, and he has now joined LeBron James and Oscar Robertson as the only players with at least 25,000 points, 5,000 rebounds and 7,000 assists.