The Nene injury is killing us. Without James' post defense last night, we don't even see overtime. He played great defense time and time again. I think it contributed to the poor overtime but it was a great game. Name another point guard that could bang with Gasol and Aldridge. Rockets in 7!
Absolutely right. I posted about this in another thread, but his defense was amazing against bigger guys in the post. Harden really played with a lot of heart and determination. That doesn't change the bizarre OT sleep walking exhibition, but his defense in the post was above and beyond. He came up huge in that department.
funny how when he puts in the work on defense his offense suffers.... 7 man rotations just aren't going to do it.
Yep he was playing solid D almost every possession last night. Credit to James Harden for the defensive focus he displayed.
"Aldridge (LMAo) and Leonard, whom Harden had to guard several times after switches, were a combined 0-for-8 against him." Harden doesn't get nearly enough credit for his post defense. He's very underrated.
He did play good defensively on the bigs...but man the dude has to do something about his perimeter defense. Green's and 1 drive really hurt and it came thanks to Harden simply being beat. It wasn't a lack of effort, it was just...he ran out of talent. I don't know what he can do to improve this, but it feels odd saying "He's just laterally slow," right? He goes from left to right to left again in a second on offense...I wonder if Battier could teach him a few tricks since he wasn't much of the athlete. That and 1 hurt, it came right after a big 3 too.
Tired legs. It was a good move by Green. Harden should have done better, but he didn't. It happens, and I bet you can't find many similar examples from last night.
Harden played admirably against Gasol and Aldridge. Battling in the post takes a toll on you too, it's much more draining to fight in the post than it is to simply run up and down the court in a fast offense. I'm not sure anyone on the staff accounted for the toll it would take on Harden when gameplanning. The few times they matchup - Kawhi & Harden.... the story was not at all about Kawhi's amazing defense on Harden, it was the other way around. Harden did a great job making Kawhi uncomfortable, not fouling, blocking the path to the rim, turning him, and contesting shots. If he learns to bring that intensity every game at some point in his career it'll be special.
At the end of the day, Green and Manu made all the big plays they needed to make. At some point we do have to give them credit. Had Manu not blocked that shot and had Harden hit it, we are all talking about the amazing triple double Harden had and how great he was etc etc.
I actually liked most of our D last night. No stupid open back door cuts (maybe 1-2), no uncontested shots, great effort 1:1, and good help showing/threatening a double team. I'm just pissed about our offensive execution.
Had I been born a billionaire and looked like Ryan Gosling we'd be all talking about me sitting court side with Scar Jo. But we are not.
For all the b****ing about his offense, people have to understand that he was clearly gassed. I've never seen him more visibly exhausted, but he was still playing his ass off on defense. I never thought we'd see the day where he was expending more energy on defense than on offense. Plus, you have the credit the Spurs defense for taking away the first two options for [a tired] Harden on every possession towards the end of the game. Harden played about as well as he could in that position... I just wish we had taken some of the pressure off of him and run a little more offense through Lou Williams or even Bev.
It was a waste of a good defensive game. This game would have been a step in changing the perception.. No one will remember after that terrible no good very bad 2nd half.
I didn't get to watch the first half, but when I saw Harden try to defend the post, he was good at it and defended well. It's clearly an effort and energy problem with him. There were a few defensive rebounds that he gave up from not boxing out that turned into offensive rebounds for the Spurs and into points. Those were late into the fourth and those points mattered. Harden has to be a two-way player to win. If he has to reserve energy on defense to play offense because he runs out of gas, then something is wrong with our roster and/or system.
