Why can't Harden D up like that every game?

bad excuse, go away

 

Because it would be priapism?

 

K

 

No.

 

I honestly would rather have this harden in most situations in the playoffs. I think he made a point today to conserve energy on offense to play superb defense. He was deferring to Paul most of the time and on the other end he was hustling and sticking to curry on every possession and screen.

I don't think his ISOs were bad in the fourth either, those step back threes were pretty open, he probably just had no legs from playing so hard on d. Which is okay. You see the same effect on every player on both teams.

 

That was the most engaged I’ve seen harden on defense in a rockets uniform. To score 24 points in the first half and still have the energy to shut a tremendous off the ball player like curry down like that was amazing.

With harden it’s all application and mental focus.

 

He literally just played great D and scored 30 op, lol

 

Because then he’d be in discussions that include Jordan, Kobe and Lebron.

 

He was a complete non factor offensively in the 2nd half though.

 

Because he doesn't have great conditioning. He's not like Lebron

 

OP and vlaurelio take the cake for turd takes.

 

Best of 3 with home court advantage

Fasten your mother fukn seatbelts b****es bc beard about to go MV motherfkn P the rest of the way!

 

Yeah, he really lead by example tonight. You can tell the rest of the guys got energized and hustled extra hard when they saw Harden give full effort.

Gordon got extra aggressive, Gerald Green’s defensive intensity went way up, Ariza was flying around like the Lakers version, all 6’5 of Tucker went full Barkley on them boards hustling and boxing out like a savage. CP3 Iso’ed at the perfect times when he had to and you could tell he wanted to cover extra hard for Harden when he struggled in the second half offensively since he stopped the run in the second half.

Tonights first half Harden is the one I always dreamed/dream of. I always knew he was fully capable of doing the things he did tonight which he rarely does. He’s shown glimpses in the past of excellent D and being a force in transition. That steal he had that led to him and CP3 running the fast break was a thing of beauty and honestly it should be more common.

Again, tonight he truly led by example (isoing and dropping 40+ while your teammates stand around and ball watch isn’t always the way as impressive as it is statistically) and he may not have realized it initially, when it was happening or even soon after the fact but when he does or if he did I hope this was his lightbulb in the head going off moment and it can become a thing.

 

Why didn’t Wilt just score 100 every game? He was obviously capable.

 

This isn’t the grind of the regular season. Both team are explosive with super stars that can go nutz after a few baskets. It takes just a few lapse / lackluster D to lose the game. You can’t give your opponent any daylight. Whoever does that better win the series.

 

Those back to back steals cemented him as one of the all time Rocket’s defensive players

 

He plays too many mpg to play good defense consistently.