Which prompts another question. Do you think the "hard" defense Harden faced in game 1 was tougher or easier than the defense he faced last year against Portland? Point of my question is has Harden just simply gotten better at beating those schemes? Or were Matthews/Batum just more effective?
other people outside of Houston think Harden needs to dtop 30 a night in order to be in relevance with Curry.
I don't think it was harder per se. But Harden has matured big time and that playoff exit last season was a blessing in disguise. He had a good hard look at himself and with experience and maturity figured out that there are other ways to play. He also trusts his teammates much more this season to make the open shot. Whether that is because of vets like Ariza and Jet instead of boneheads like Lin or just from experience remains to be seen. IMO it's a bit of both.
Well said. And I never really thought of the Kobe/MJ references that you mentioned. Harden still has a lot to build legacy-wise but he is most definitely on the way there...and he has plenty of time to do it. There is no doubt the entire building knows James Harden is the focus. Much like entire stadiums know Foster is going to run. The great ones find a way for the betterment of the team. And Harden has really polished his game significantly in only 1 year.
It depends on what you define as great. His shooting percentage from the floor was not good. But he got to the foul line 17 times and made 15 of them. And he dished out 11 assists which meant he reacted well to the Dallas double and triple teams and got his teammates involved. Honestly, it's a wash if Harden gets 24 and 11 or 35 and 6. In the end, it's about point production which he excelled at in Game 1. If he shoots better from the field, all it means is the Rockets win by 15-20 points instead of 10.
Matthews/ Batum were very good, but Harden certainly has gotten better too. He weaved through the double teams, against much taller defenders and finished at the rim. He wouldn't have been able to do that one year ago.
I only think he didnt have a good game in that he missed shots he generally makes, he had a couple of open threes and a few stepback jumpers that he normally makes. I am very encouraged and impressed at the maturity he showed by not forcing anything. He would have done that in the past for sure. the 11 FG were the fewest he has attempted as a Rocket in the playoffs. In fact in his time in Houston he has only attempted 11 FG or less 5 times when playing the same amount of minutes (39) or more (i accounted for minutes so it wont account for blowout games or games where he may have left with an injury and didnt play as much) The Rockets are 3-2 in those 5 regular season games - the odd thing is that 3 of those games have come against the grizzlies. In two of those 5 games he also had double digit assists and he lowest FG game of 9 while playing that many minutes were also accompanied by 25 FT attempts. James didn't force it was the big key and so the shots he did end up taking were all good looks he just didn't make them. Actually the biggest issue was his shooting from deep. James was 1-5 from 3pt land -- and was 3-6 from inside the arc to combine for his 4-11 shooting. His 17 FT attempts -- 5 were out of the flow - 4 came from intentional fouls at the end of the game 1 was from a technical. So 12 came off of 6 drives to the basket so he still ended up attacking the basket which was good to see except he really picked his spots. He tended to attack the basket more in transition to get to the hoop or line. In the half court when he attacked the Mavs packed the lane and he was able to find his open teammate. Actually you know in some ways I think getting that offensive foul on the first play of the game helped quite a bit because after that he had to be cautious and not be overly aggressive on offense. Because the way the game started with his ISO it seemed like he was going to come out and make a point to score a lot after that he sort of was like "oh wait i just need to win more than anything else"
So Carlisle obviously knows that Harden can still excel as a facilitator if other guys are knocking down shots. He said he's going to have to account for that. Will that mean keeping the ball out of his hands entirely to not even let him setup the offense? Almost like trapping the ball. Are the Rockets prepared for that you think? Or are they going to go back to a defense that allows him to get his, but takes away the play making abilities? Are they going to make Harden a jump shooter by sucking in the defense? I dunno, but Harden played Carlisle's game 1 defense like a fiddle. Had he shot better it would have been a blowout. Harden missed a few easy looks of course so maybe that will convince Carlisle to allow Harden to be a jump shooter.... we should be so lucky for him to have the balls to allow Harden to score 1 on 1, and just rely on rim protection behind his defender. Sadly I don't think we will get that. I think Carlisle is going to try and bully Harden and keep the ball out of his hands all together. If the Rockets prepare accordingly for that, they should try and take advantage again. Brewer... I'm looking at you to take advantage.
Thanks for the insight. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't trapping the ball unsustainable for an entire game? How would Carlisle successfully prevent Harden from getting the ball exactly? They can't double Harden if he doesn't have the ball, so it seems to be a taller task against the Mavs to prevent touches for Harden. Once Harden gets the ball, he becomes the ball handler/facilitator and he's shown in game 1 that he knows how to play against hard doubles. And secondly, if Carlisle is successful with the scheme of preventing Harden, what could the Rockets do to counter that? Thanks David
I thought he played excellent. Only took 11 shots and had 24 points 11 assists (as we all know). I think this is the difference between Harden last year and Harden this year. He understands that he will be getting all the attention defensively and moves the ball for the best possible shot. Great show of maturity from the MVP.
Decent game, yeah he got 24 pts but but had a horrible shooting night. He's not gonna get as many pts at the stripe as he did last game.. Need to be more efficient at shooting the ball then he'll have that great game we need him to have. I like that he got eveybody involved too. 11+ assist or wtv was the good part of his game 1 performance
In theory your statement is true but it's exactly what happened in game 1 and I don't see Carlisle being that incompetent to not make adjustments. Maybe the same game plan works if Monta isn't completely lost on the defensive end, they had the bodies to match up, and Dwight continues to make stupid fouls but those aspects can't be controlled like a game plan. Carlisle also has to fix the Dirk PnR and with Parsons questionable for tonight I don't see him with much choice. It's either stop Harden from destroying you or get destroyed by the rest of the team. That's my best answer to your question. In short, he has to pick his poison and Poison A proved to be deadly.
Some moron posted in the game thread that Harden & Jones "werent' showing up just like last year" - not sure how stupid you have to be really to believe this. They only accounted for like 50% of the offense.
When your shooting guard gets 11 assists and still scores more points than shot attempts, you are going to win 19 out of 20 games. He had a fantastic game. What's crazy is that he is capable of so much more. James Harden has spoiled us like Dream did.
Not a good game in his standard, he allowed JR to play stupid balls too much, this is not a great leader standard on the great team. I know MJ will stop pass the ball to JR after one turnover and others.
It's actually night and day from last year's playoffs Against he was on tilt when his shot was not falling and zoned out and played like an idiot on both side of the floor This year he just adjusted properly to his shots not falling by facilitating for his team mate while still playing good defense. maybe he finally learned to adapt his game to whatever the defense gives him instead of forcing the issue when you are getting shut down.
