Jeremy Lin and James Harden: Can The Rockets Teammates Score Together?; A Few Scenarios How They Could Maximize Potential

The more lineups change, the more things remain the same - and that's not necessarily a good thing if you're a Houston Rockets fan.

There were many bright spots with the Rockets (10-11) getting back on track with a 99-93 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night.

Houston's superstar scorer James Harden returning after sitting out with an ankle sprain on Monday, and not missing a beat with a 31-point showing that led all scorers.

Chandler Parsons and Patrick Patterson continue to be reliable scorers, the two combining for 31 points to aid the Rockets' cause.

Yet, amid all the bright spots, there was one noticeable thing that stood out--glaringly--after Monday's game against the Spurs.

That would be Jeremy Lin, who, coming off a team-best 38 points against the Spurs on Monday, returned to being a shot-deferring, pass-first point guard, scoring only 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting and dishing six assists.

The difference between the Lin who showed up in Houston on Monday and the one that laced up his sneakers against Washington is night and day.

The Lin who played against San Antonio shot 21 times, yet still managed to get one more assist than he did on Wednesday. Lin didn't even reach double figures in his Wednesday game.

In addition, Lin, who shot a perfect 12-for-12 against the Spurs at the free throw line, was being relentless in his attack of the basket. He looked unstoppable, particularly in his 15-point third quarter.

Yet, Lin only got the free throw line twice against the Wizards, shooting 2-of-4 from the free throw line.

Clearly Lin still has the ability to take over the game, but he was looking more like Clark Kent than a Superman on Wednesday, deferring the offense to Harden, who shot 20 times with the ball--which accounted for 26 percent of the team's field goal attempts.

So, what gives?

"(Harden) came out on fire, and we rode his scoring for a while," Lin told ESPN, via the Associated Press afterwards. "It's not just me and him -- there's five of us out there. We're just trying to figure it all out and find a happy medium where we kind of maximize everybody."

Clearly, however, that's still a work in progress for the Rockets. While McHale has said that he wants to work on strategies that see the ball in Lin's hands more often, even with Harden on the floor, thus far, such game plans have yet to emerge.

Harden continues to have a stellar season, ranking as the fifth-best NBA scorer at 25.0 points a night.

However, it is likely that the Rockets had much more in mind in their plans for Lin when they plunked down $25 million for the 24-year-old undrafted point guard that became a phenom with the New York Knicks last February.

Games like Wednesday night--"Linsanity" in all of its glory--were what they were expecting...not the tepid 11.3 points that Lin has averaged this season. And while Lin has struggled finding his shot prior to this week, he did connect on 50 percent of his field goals on Wednesday, a sign that Lin is ready to become more of a contributor.

But in order for him to do that, Lin, Harden, and the Rockets are going to have to sit down and figure this all out.

Is Harden taking too many shots? Is Lin simply not taking enough shots? Can a solution be found in splitting pick-and-roll plays between both players--each of which have remarkably quick first steps to the basket?

Would the answer be found in splitting the offensive focus between both Harden and Lin in halves or even per quarter, Harden taking possibly the lead in the second and fourth quarter, and Lin spearheading the offense in the first and the third periods?

Is it something else?

McHale, who has been away from the organization dealing with an illness, and later a death in the family has likely, and understandably, not had the time to sit down with his team to plan out strategies that could maximize both Harden and Lin to their full potential as a potential 1-2 scoring duo, the way Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant are in Oklahoma City or LeBron James and Dwayne Wade are in Miami.

And yet, it is something that has been on his mind. 

"We have to find a way to get Jeremy playing with the ball more, even playing with James," McHale told the Houston Chronicle of Lin this week. "We've got to make sure he's able to do some things and have some strong-side, weak-side action where he is involved."

But if the Rockets are going to do that, they're going to have to figure things out in a hurry.

True, there's still roughly five months of basketball left to play, but in a Western Conference that has gotten even more stacked and a Southwest Division that includes the dangerous Spurs (18-5), the formidable Grizzlies (14-5) and the ever tough Dallas Mavericks (11-11), the Rockets are going to need Lin and Harden to find that balance where they can each score and contribute.

Can Lin and Harden find a way to be scorers on the floor at the same time?

Yes, they probably can.

But whether they will is the big question, and the answer may determine the future for both Lin and the franchise.