Harden smiled. “That’s just being crafty,” he said.

Drawing fouls has long been acknowledged as an art and an advantageous skill in the N.B.A., and Harden — if the eye-popping numbers and the testimony from teammates, coaches, analysts and even begrudging opponents are to be believed — has mastered it to an extreme.

At 25, Harden has distinguished himself as one of the league’s great scorers, averaging 27.5 points per game this season, and when the regular season ends Wednesday, he could win his first scoring title, although he is in a neck-and-neck battle with his former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook. The next day, voting for the league’s most valuable player will close, and it is widely thought that the award will go to Harden or Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors.

A crucial factor in Harden’s remarkable season has been his production at the free-throw line, where his shooting percentage is .866. Through Monday — when Houston beat Charlotte, 100-90, and Harden scored 29 points while making 14 of 16 foul

shots — Harden has registered a league-high 816 free throws and has made 707. Second, far behind, was Westbrook, who had taken 629 through Sunday and made 525. Through 81 games — only one of which he had missed — Harden was averaging 10.2 free-throw attempts, with 8.8 of them successful. Both figures were also league highs.

He is just the 11th player in N.B.A. history to sink more than 700 free throws in a season.

“Getting fouled is definitely an art, and he’s very good at it,” Rockets Coach Kevin McHale said, adding that Harden’s body awareness allowed him to initiate contact that works in his favor.