It's his fault if he thinks he is the MVP. This was a high stakes game Harden clearly didnt play his best no energy at all on his play. Giannis can't even shoot a lick he is still hitting on 50% FG just by balling his heart out.
Because hitting layups and dunks in the paint are a lot more easier than shooting an off the dribble 3pt or a floater, especially when you're 6ft 11 and you're mostly up against much shorter guys than you. We seen it tonight, Giannis was struggling like hell to post anyone up. Most of his joy came from when his teammates were setting him up.
It's not Giannis' fault he is 6'11. If Harden's shots arent falling then its on to him to play like Giannis and scrap it out instead of blindly continuing to chuck up shots. Giannis struggled to 19 pts 14 rebs 4 assists good lord what a struggle that was. Rox are back and fully healthy Harden has no excuse for low efficiency if he wants his teammates to hit their shots he needs to set an example and not be a master bricker. As the leader he sets the tone of the team when Giannis takes a dunk and it goes in then it pumps his team up if Harden dribbles for 20 secs then bricks a step back that doesn't do anything for his team.
****ing wack ass fans blaming Harden for this. Dude wasn't getting any calls, getting double teamed, and his teammates didn't pick up an ounce of slack to help him. It's easy to "ball your heart out" when you have 3 different guys splashing 3's all over the court. Instead, Harden gets a big ol' goose egg from Gordon and Tucker.
Harden was pissed because he was getting guys like PJ and Gordon wide open threes. Nobody was even 10 ft near a lot of those tucker threes. He has to make a few of those. Harden couldn’t get any threes off because they were forcing him to drive. It’s a poor strategy imo but it did work tonight. Harden should have floaterd they to death.
Harden's floaters were falling for the most part. It's his 3pt shots that weren't falling, but that was down to him not having any open looks all game. Harden't points was a lot more difficult than Giannis' were. Giannis shot 46.7% from the field, which isn't all that great when he's just shooting layups and dunks in the paint..... over shorter guys than him. I would expect Giannis to get 14 rebounds.... he's 6ft 11! Harden still had 23 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists himself.... and that's considered a below average game for him. It would be a great game for other players. At the end of the day, neither of them had good games. This just proves that Giannis has a much better consistent supporting cast than Harden does this season. It's why we can't use this game as example, because Giannis got big help from his supporting cast, and Harden got let down by his supporting cast. In other words, no player made a big statement. I had Harden way ahead before this game and I still have him way ahead now. If Giannis dropped around 35 points and shot around 55% from the field, I might have said he has a good case for MVP. But even then, it wouldn't have been that close. Harden has still dropped more points than him in both games.
As I said, they would have eventually picked up on the floater. I think we had the right tactics, we just shot horribly in the 2nd half..... and those stupid turnovers lead to easy points in the first half.
I think about the only thing I'd fault Harden for is not being more selfish in this game. James, I know you don't want to be a ball hog. I know because you've said openly this very season that you don't like having to play the hero ball role. We've seen you rack up plenty of assists trying to get your teammates involved over the years. But, James, the sad truth is that, with this team, sometimes the best thing to do is for you to just say "Give me the ****ing ball, and stay out of my way." The sadder truth is that your teammates probably secretly want you to say that. Their weak-kneed and limp-dicked play on the court suggests that they feel a lot more comfortable when James Harden just solves the game for them. It's not just this game. It's a lot of games. Just take the ball and make something happen. YOU can do that. They can't. A loss is still a loss no matter how generous and considerate you tried to be. Sorry, man. It sucks.
history gonna repeat itself in the playoffs.. we're gonna go cold against the warriors in an important game and we'll lose because we shoot under 20% from the 3. with MDA and Morey at the helm, our offense has no backup plan. If we're having garbage night shooting then we just flat out lose.
Dudes so used to harden scoring 60 points that they don’t know that a 23/10/7 game is still a solid game especially when they entire defense is zoned on you and the refs are taking points off the board and your teammates are blowing wide open looks your’re giving them. Oh no harden didn’t have 70, he didn’t step up.
Yes and that's what the refs do in the playoffs. Gets in his head Couple that with poor shooting night from his teammates and you get the 'ref-effect'
Change Starts with a time out and an adjustment from MDA. Anything- just try something different. You mean to tell me that among all the coaches, and cp3/harden and the familiarity we have with the Worriers that we can't : 1 call time out 2 chew out your players 3 motivate your players 4 coach them to make an adjustment
This. We have an all-time great, in his prime.....with an MVP under his belt. And in position for another. These people embody what’s wrong with our “I’m outraged” and “Must blame someone” society. Sometimes bad games happen. If people crapped Dream and all our other greats during the good ol’ days of this site (like they do Harden now) - Clutchfans never becomes part of my daily rotation. (99er-09er shoutout)
It's not like he tried to assist the whole game. The man took 26 shots. Refs didn't call a lot of the contact. You're acting like Harden was passive all game and that he only took like, 4 shots or something. Getting teammates involved takes the offensive burden off yourself. If Gordon and Tucker were hitting their shots, Bucks would find it more difficult to cheat off them, giving Harden more room to operate. But since it was a 3pt brickfest, Bucks honed in more on Harden.
I thought Harden played pretty great despite the poor shooting. He had several defensive stops and seemed to be really dialed in on that end all game. I really feel like free throws really help get Harden in rhythm. I'd be very interested to know how his 3p% correlates to the number of free throws he takes in a game.
It really was on Harden if you ask me. The other team gives you the lane, then you should have scored on every possession. At worst you have a 5 foot jump shot or tear drop completely unguarded. That's automatic in the nba. If they step up then Capela scores. Simple. This game was a layup literally. Harden was a deer in headlights. The Rockets used the wrong strategy.
Harden should have figured that out on his own . Take advantage of the wide open lane. Harden got scared of taking open mod range jumpers.
