What's really frustrating to me is that I know Harden is fully capable of averaging 25 points without relying on foul calls. He has all the offensive arsenal at his disposal and yet somehow chooses to draw contact and get fouled rather than just play straight up basketball. He has those sweet step back jumper and is decent three point shooter. He can get by his defender with his nifty dribbles and drive to the basket with strong finish. Just look at what he did in OKC when he was awarded Sixth Man Of The Year. He single-handedly destroyed the Spurs in the playoffs without relying on foul calls. He is an elite offensive player, there is no doubt about it, but I think along the way he picked up a bad habit of deliberately looking for foul calls because that's the most safe and easiest way of scoring, as long as the refs are willing to blow the whistle. I wish somebody would tell him that he should use that strategy only occasionally. Drawing fouls just can not be Harden's signature move, because I know he is better than that.
Griffin and Jordan in the paint it gets tough to take it to the basket. The Spurs made their shots Mills, Green, Belanilie. .. we need to start hitting our shots.
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****ing people acting like Harden just doesn't want to succeed in the playoffs. It's not like Harden is just being lazy or doesn't care. These teams concentrate on stopping Harden. They want to deny him the ball. They want him to drive into DeAndre. They want to play up on him so he's working for everything and not getting open looks. Its the same reason why LeBron (yes, the best player in all of freaking basketball) struggles in the playoffs. Pair Harden with another good ball handler/playmaker and let's get Dmo/Beverley back and see how Harden performs in the place. ****ing fickle fans
how can u not laugh at a team that claims they're contenders but refuse to play defense in the playoffs when it matters most, esp their mvp player? and what about ariza going 20% from three in the playoffs, most are open? some kinda team the rockets got
As an irrational confidence guy, Rivers is going to have nights like this. The defense was lacking at times, sure... but he was hitting shots he has no business making and he's shooting like a 60% clip from three. He's got to come back to earth at some point.
I'm too pissed off to laugh. But yeah, we have become the league's laughing-stock. If his performance doesn't change drastically, Harden may never be able to escape his playoff reputation. This may be the last time he's considered for MVP.
I didn't realize Harden was literally the only player on the Rockets. Its kind of hard to score baskets when you have guys crowding you with double teams and if you manage to get through them you have a giant waiting at the basket to contest your lay ups. There is a reason why Harden had 10 assists early and its because he is FORCED to pass. Harden does everything he can. You can be the strongest arm wrestler in the world but if you have multiple people pulling on your arm its going to get way too tiring and difficult to do what you normally do to people. Its crazy how Josh Smith just cant catch a pass anymore when hes cutting to the basket. I feel like the passes are there and they get fumbled all the time. Also, Brewer, Prigoni, Smith, and (to an extent) Ariza...where has the 3 point shooting gone??? Ariza has started to settle for taking a step inside the line or a mid range instead of the 3 because it hasnt been there. Also...there isn't enough cutting to the basket in this series by the Rockets. Too many passes are getting picked off due to being completely predictable or just a bad decision. We need some players to set off ball screens, confuse the defense for just one moment and have a cutter go straight to the basket.
I don't necessarily believe harden should receive the brunt of everyone's criticism, but he is our leader and it is just of the burdens that falls on our captains shoulders. However, he is the only person on our roster that can legitimately create offense for himself and others. Personally, this roster needs more playmakers and reliable shooters. Look at the clippers, they Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Jamal Crawford, Rivers, and somewhat Reddick with how he moves off screens. There is constant movement and ball movement. Our offense runs entirely through harden and once that is taken away we are extremely inefficient.
this is the first time i've ever seen a player average 27 and 9 at 65% ts and be blamed for the team losing
in his 8 playoff games harden is 27/4/8, 46fg% and 40 3pt%, 1.4stls. he can do more but he's fine. his team is sucking ass, mainly defense
what about ariza? i dont see much criticism about him. 34% from the field, 23% from three. thats now what he was brought here to do. no amount of elite defense will make up for countless open shots he gets. i'd rather have a starting sf who's average offense/good defense then ariza's elite defense/borderline passable offense. he cancels out his defense with all his missed shots. even a sf who can shoot on bev's level is better. ariza is a huge flop for the playoffs. i thought he'd turn on a switch but he got worse!
We miss Beverley. It was bizarre to me how many people on CF dismissed his loss as negligible (or even a net benefit). We miss DMo's skills, but we miss Beverley's energy and attitude as well. I don't see the Clips disrespecting us like this with Bev on the floor.
