NBA fans have to go back to James Harden's second season in the league when he was coming off the bench for the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2010-11 to find a campaign when he averaged fewer points per game than his 16.6 in 2023-24, but he proved he can still fill up the box score when needed.

Harden led the Los Angeles Clippers to a 109-97 victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Sunday by pouring in 20 points in the first half on his way to 28 points and eight assists on 8-of-17 shooting from the field and 6-of-11 from deep.

"I can score with the best of 'em," Harden said after the win, per ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk.

"Still can score with the best of 'em. My role for this team is just generating really good shots and making guys' jobs easier. And then when my number to score is called, then you score the basketball. Obviously, Kawhi is out, so my playmaking and my volume is going to go up a little bit more, and took advantage of it."

His scoring was all the more important because Kawhi Leonard was ruled out with knee inflammation prior to the game.

Harden was more of a facilitator this season while averaging 16.6 points and 8.5 assists a night on a Clippers team with plenty of scorers, but he aggressively looked for his shot from the opening minutes and took advantage of a Mavericks defense that gave him far too much space.

It was a vintage performance from someone who led the league in scoring in three consecutive seasons from 2017 to 2020. The game was also all but over by halftime thanks in large part to his early scoring spurt, as the Clippers built a 26-point intermission lead and never looked back.

Thanks to that lead, Harden was able to take his foot off the gas as a scorer as some of his teammates found their own shots. Ivica Zubac notched a double-double of 20 points and 15 rebounds while Paul George led the offense in the fourth quarter and finished with 22 points.

It remains to be seen when Leonard will return, so the Clippers might need the scoring version of Harden to make more appearances in the postseason than he did during the regular season.

To hear him tell it, he can still score when needed. He did just that Sunday and will have another opportunity to do so in front of the home fans in Game 2 on Tuesday.