OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER ;The bearded one took his game to anot

Who was this bearded man?He wore No. 13 and, at times, he looked like the best player inthe gym Wednesday night. When the ball was in his hands, thedefense had no idea how to stop him. In the pick-and-roll, hecarved up the competition and created plays for himself and otherswith the greatest of ease. He drove to the basket, and finished atthe rim, and stopped and popped, and served up one sweet pass afteranother to his teammates.He did all of this over and over and over again."He really took his game to another level," marveled KevinDurant.This is how we will remember James Harden closing the 2010-11season. The second-year Thunder guard saved his best forlast in Oklahoma City's 100-96 loss to Dallas in Game 5 of theWestern Conference Finals. Now, the memory of his performance willleave Thunder fans salivating untilOctober, or whenever it is that the next NBA season mightbegin.Harden didn't just raise the bar for himself. He punted it to adifferent planet.In 34 minutes off the bench, Harden scored 23 points on 7-of-11shooting while dishing out six assists, pulling down five reboundsand turning it over only twice. Harden marched to the free throwline a game-high 10 times, making eight."He was confident," Durant said. "He knew what he had to do forus to win. He had to come off the bench and give us a spark andthat's what he did."Never before have we seen Harden do what he did Wednesday. Whenthe Thunder's offense needed a spark, asit did throughout the postseason, Harden essentially became apoint-forward. When the Mavs made a second-half push, turning athree-point halftime deficit into a three-point advantage 7 1/2minutes into the third quarter, the Thunder responded by playing smallball. And Harden was so good he gave the Thunder no choice but to put theball in his hands to initiate the offense despite point guardsRussell Westbrook and Eric Maynor both being deployed in thelineup.Harden then hit Durant on a drive and dish for a 3-ball thattied it. He then secured a rebound and went coast-to-coast andearned a trip to the stripe. Fifty seconds later, he penetratedtoward the paint before pulling up and feeding Westbrook on abeautiful look-away pass for a layup.The Thunder regained a six-point lead.And the pressure Harden applied from that point-forward positioncompletely puzzled the Mavs. Unlike Game 4,tera gold, when Dallas sent thehouse at Durant and Westbrook the moment Harden fouled out withjust less than five minutes left to play, the Mavs couldn't containthe Thunder when it had its third bestscorer and perhaps its best playmaker sharing the court with itstwo All-Stars."In college, that's all I was was a playmaker," Harden said. "Ireally didn't have a lot of open 3s. I transformed my game early myfirst year here. But this year, they just had more confidence inputting the ball in my hands to make plays. So that's something Itried to do."Seeing the Thunder's offense shift into highgear with Harden at the wheel will naturally leave fans longing formore - especially since the offense has a tendency to bog down whenWestbrook and Durant are on the court together without a legitimatethird scoring option. Next season, Harden will be called upon tofill that void and provide more balance.Here comes those heightened expectations."That's what we're going to need for him," Durant said. "He'sgoing to be an important piece. People are going to expect him -that's a big word, expect him - to do big things next year. Heknows that. I'm sure he's going to take that challenge on head onand try to come back a better player."Harden, who averaged 14.4 points on 53.5 percent shooting alongwith six rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.2 steals in the conferencefinal, sounds more than comfortable and confident in assuming addedresponsibility. When asked how much better he can be, Hardenresponded "A lot better."By all accounts, we're only seeing the beginning. Hardencouldn't take on more offensively until the deadline-day deal thatsent Jeff Green to Boston for Kendrick Perkins. Almost immediately,Harden transformed into one of the league's best sixth men,averaging 15.8 points on 46.5 percent shooting after the All-Starbreak compared to just 10.3 points on 41.3 percent before it."James knows that he had to get better as a player as the seasonwent along and he did," said Thunder coach Scott Brooks. "Ithought the trade really helped him feel more confident that heknows that we needed to count on him night in and night out, and hewas very consistent in the second half of the season."Whenever the Thunder is allowed to reconvene forthe 2011-12 season, the bearded man promised to return the same aswe last saw him."Most likely I will," Harden said when asked if he'll keep hisbushy beard. "I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon."

Hard Fest’s inaugural rave voyage

Hard Fest’s inaugural rave voyage now has a name and a lineup! Peep holtera goldyship.com for info on this floating DJ fest (setting sail in January, with advance cabins available starting June 15th) including our own A-Trak in the Captain Metera goldrrill Stubing role. This month we’re getting up with our friends at Wieden+Kennedy / Attack for SHOP, a pop-up retail event at their NYC office starting Thursday,rift platinum June 16th. SHOP will feature booths from 40 of their favorite local brands (including Fool’s Gold, naturally) slinging exclusive items, samples, and more. There rift goldwill be food from Eddie Huang and music by FG DJs every day until it wraps on Monday, June 20th. Peep the full flyer after the jump, stay tuned for more details (rift goldincluding the DJ schedule) and hit Phil Chang on Twitter for any press requests or inquirie