@Kim A lot of this might be fixable just by Ariza playing more. Ariza only got 23 minutes. Is there even a thread about Ariza's foul trouble and 23 minutes? Ariza got his 5th foul with 9:35 left in the 3rd Q, with score 61-60 Green was playing for him the whole time GSW made their 3rd Q move. Green was in the rest of the 3rd Q, which never happens. Foul trouble on Ariza led directly to the bad defense by Green. Also, the way it screwed up the rotations, the foul trouble might have had ripple effects so big it led to Nene playing as well. I don't think MDA planned to play Nene just 6 minutes, but rather was forced to.
Defense matters I know others on this board ONLY CARE about OFFENSE especially when they compare players
All you newbs need to understand that defense is important Us 99ers know that This game is a lesson that you have to play d
We don’t even discuss defense here because our best player has always refused to play on that side of the ball. I mean like really. The guy doesn’t even try. He just stands there like a statue, as if his feet are stuck in cement, on defense. You can’t really expect much from a team that gets that sort of effort from its “leader.”
I sad the same thing the last couple years but no one is beating this stacked Warriors team unless your best players all take paycuts like those scumbags on the Warriors. Even then, it would be difficult because two of those scumbags happen to be MVPs in their prime.
the consensus before series started was D would win this for us. If we step back and take a wide view we can now see the hand wringing over our offense is a waste of time. Can we show up defensively two more times? I believe so.
After Trevor funnily enough harden was our second best defender tonight especially when he locked Curry’s ass down for the last 7 minutes of the game .
Harden was the worst defender for the Rockets; however, he played much much better on D than he has before. He had some great contests and I was standing and cheering him for every single one of them. Also, Gerald Green! Wow! His defense was amazing!
I respectfully disagree because he got lost on Klay 3's and other times, and he was still abused in space, but he was like 3 times better than he has been before. I'll take this type of game from him more happily than the game 1 type from him.
James Harden played situational defense in the 4th...he really prevented Curry getting off 3 point bombs and forced him to drive.
It's a 7 man rotation, and he gets attacked more than any other player because he's the worst space defender on the Rockets. Green gets attacked too when he's in, but was crazy good and even recovery blocked after getting beat. And in addition to getting attacked, Harden sleeps off-ball and loses his man a lot...which doesn't happen as often to any other Rocket in the 7 man rotation. But relative to other games, his D was so much better this game. He had several great contests.
I hope we can maintain it because mike diantoni going to drive those 6-7 players to the ground. Our bench are probably gerald green and eric gordon
Sans Ryan Anderson, harden is the worst defender on the team when he is on the court. Anyone trying to argue this is kidding themselves. People don't make fun of Curry's defense because he at least seems to try. Doesnt make him better at it but the perception is different when you look like you don't care. It's all about effort. When harden puts in the effort, he can be a good defender. He put in effort today. I credit guys like cp3 and Tucker that are helping ghim elevate his defensive effort.
Listening to the Dunc'd on update. Oh man, I though I was the only one Louis CKing all over the place over Gerald Green's defense. He was incredible! 12 minutes of pure hustle...and who would have thought there's a critical playoff game where Green's offensive help was meh and his defensive help was ++++!
