huffort: (noun) Origin: sports cleche' combining hustle and effort. 1. A busy movement and activity when rotating on defense. 2. A vigorous or determined attempt to get loose balls or rebounds. 3. A strenuous physical or mental exertion to impose your will on the opponent. 4. Something the Houston Rockets did not display at all in Round 2 Game 1. I have watched enough sports in my life, including the two championship runs of the Hakeem led Houston Rockets to know that if you do not put forth maximum effort and show hustle in your play you will get rolled by your opponent. This is exactly what happened last night and if the leaders of this team (i.e. Howard and Hardin) do not step up their game and vocal leadership on and off the court this team has no chance of winning. Lets hope they find these things and bring them to the court in game 2 on Wednesday night...
Huffort is overrated. Talentry is all that is needed. Talentry and leaderism. The leaders with talent rise up to the occasion and carry the team on their back. Now that's a beautifulous thing.
Re-watched the game focusing all my attention on Harden and I can say he was literally doing nothing the entire game, unless the ball was in his hands. Coasting on defense, standing on offense. And when the ball was in his hands it ended up in turnovers every other time. (~42% of Harden's possessions ended in turnovers)
Yep and Morey wanted this guy to be the unquestionable MVP, NOPE he didn't win it because he is what he is and as good as he is he is ****ing lazy as **** sometimes and last night was about as underwhelming a performance for an MVP wannabe as you will ever see. Harden either steps up and stands behind what he said in his post game presser or he will once again be undressed by the press and Rockets fans after this series ends far too soon...
All of this is true but how do we explain it? How does the league's MVP runner-up decide to coast on D and stand around on offense during the biggest game of his Rockets career? All season, we saw him dedicate himself to team defense and aggressive, downhill moves to the rim. I really hope he bounces back this series or else I fear for him. His brand will suffer irreparable harm, and he'll have no one to blame but himself.
My suspicion is he got his pee-pee hurt when he didn't receive the MVP award and then in the game he had a couple of fouls that were not called by the refs in the 1st and 2nd quarters, he complained to the them and it went unchanged and eventually he just mentally checked out of the game. But it wasn't just him, there were wide open jump shots for the Clippers on numerous occasions in the second half, they did not end the first half strong nor come out in the second have with fire, nobody except D12 was going after rebounds or loose balls, there was little to no movement on offense without the ball, etc. and don't get me started about the lack of defensive intensity....LOL