in my opinion, this was not what cost the game. It was mainly the Rockets defense where Nets got easy layups and give Nets credit too as they shot lights out from 3pt line when it mattered the most. Give Harden a break, he was playing without Paul, Capella, House & partially Gordon.
actually i thought it was very commendable he was deffering to austin rivers and they were taking turns just like with cp3
we had those players vs dallas earlier and still lost in an embarasing manner being up by 8 with 2 and a half minutes to go
Harden had 40 points yes 40 freaking points in the second half and single handedly got Houston a 14 point lead .
OP sprint for 2 miles then start shooting jumpers .. maybe then you'll get an appreciation for what the dude does. I don't even care if he Ds up at all considering the usage. His numbers are off the charts in crunch time - weird take.
Basically the OP is suggesting that Harden find a way to score 100% of the points and its Pringles job to figure out how Harden can score 100% of the points.
Harden scored 57 and 58 points in back to back games without a single point being assisted on. I'm not suggesting Harden score 100% of the points but that seems to be the gameplan going into games with all of these injuries. Since it is the gameplan to have everything run through James, it's ridiculous to start crucial OT possessions with the shot clock winding down. Get James the ball early (because that's what our offense was the entire game) and let him work earlier or swing the ball out of a double team earlier. Otherwise, we rush shots to beat the shot clock. That's why we blew that lead last night.
I respectfully disagree. We lost because we could not contain Dinwiddie, because we allowed a 3 point shot to tie the game in regulation, then we go up again by 6 in OT mainly because of Harden (again) and then Gerald Green goes full r****d and commits a boneheaded foul that lost all the momentum. We lost because nobody on the team can rebound effectively other than Harden right now. We lost because most of the Rockets are just watching Harden do his thing. No movement, No selling out on defense. James Harden was the reason we even had a shot in this game, not the reason why we lost.
Anyone who is blaming Harden after a 58 point performance while he played 45 minutes and talking about how this is unacceptable doesn't know anything about basketball and shouldn't be posting.
James is tired, but he doesn't always have to try and do it all himself. He doesn't always have to play so many minutes. If he just trusted his teammates more he wouldn't need to run himself ragged, or take all the shots. To say they aren't capable is just wrong. Sometimes Green is hot, and sometimes others are, but that never matters. James still tries to do it all, whether it is take 3's or play ISO ball. He averaged 17 3's in all those losses, even when shooting at .246. In the last 4 games we lost James was 17 of 69 and Rivers was 15 of 33. You do the math. If Rivers had taken 69 shots we would not have lost all those games. Sure, James is great, and setting all kinds of personal records, but trying to do it all isn't necessarily the best or smartest way to win games. It just makes him look good in the record books.
Leaders take over points in the game to contain momentum. It's a mindset. Harden has it, he showed it last night, and he even demands that currency at the end of games, but he does seem at times to take the easy way out in the last minute. For example, last year, I would have said a step back thee at the end was lazy. This year, I don't think I can say that. It's a weapon. So I will only rag on him if he does one of those lazy in bounds where he just leans on a guy and expects that to be "I'm open".
