Fresh from COVID-19 protocols, James Harden helped carry Nets past Lakers

The hardest part about James Harden’s 10-day COVID-19 quarantine stint was just the waiting to return to the basketball court. Describing his experience in isolation, Harden said, "I was doing a lot of nothing. A lot of nothing. Video games and bingewatching."

Maybe it was a matter of unleashing all his pent-up energy, but Harden came roaring back from quarantine to lead the Nets’ impressive 122-115 Christmas Day victory over the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

True, the Nets squandered all of a 23-point fourth-quarter lead before pulling out of that nose-dive to score the final seven points and preserve the win. Harden was on fire with a triple-double of 36 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in 39 minutes in his first game since Dec. 10.

Harden was carrying a huge load before entering health and safety protocols, averaging 39.1 minutes over his previous 10 games, and he was right back at it the instant he came out of protocols with no practice the previous 15 days.

"We had a [23-point] lead in the fourth quarter, so it wasn’t supposed to go like that," Harden said. "It was not supposed to be a 39-minute game. But at the end of the day, I just wanted to win and that’s all that matters. Not being able to work out . . . to just basically sit in a room in my apartment and not being able to do anything difficult, you’re in the middle of the season.

"Then you get hit with this, and it’s like ‘All right, when we get back, you’ve got to ramp up, hopefully try and stay on pace and get your conditioning and your wind back.’ It’s difficult. But I think everybody is going through it just because this virus is spreading so crazy. Hopefully, it’s not too serious, and people aren’t really affected by it."

Seven Nets remained in quarantine prior to their scheduled game against the Clippers Monday night in Los Angeles. The list included veterans Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and LaMarcus Aldridge and rookies Cam Thomas, Kessler Edwards, Day’ron Sharpe and David Duke Jr. Langston Galloway reportedly will sign a second 10-day contract.

So even though the Lakers were without injured All-Star Anthony Davis, they still had LeBron James and Russell Westbrook. Despite their fourth-quarter meltdown, the Nets pulled out a huge road victory against one of the NBA’s premier teams.

Patty Mills, who contributed 34 points, including 8-for-13 three-point shooting that marked a record number of threes made in a Christmas Day game, described it as an all-hands-on-deck mentality. "That was the message from the beginning of the game, obviously being on the road, big game, Christmas, a high-caliber team," Mills said. "They’re bound to make runs, and it definitely gets loud here.

"Just to be able to take those hits and stay calm and stay composed and stick to the game plan, I think we have done a great job of being able to take those blows and still stick to what we want to do. But definitely a massive team effort from every guy who stepped on the floor and being able to deliver in their role was huge."

By Greg Logan

Gregory.Logan@newsday.comGregLogan1

Greg Logan has worked for Newsday since 1982 covering a wide array of sports and events, currently including the Brooklyn Nets beat.