No, no he doesn't have to shoot better than 1.53 points per shot for us to win. If the best team in the league wants nothing else but to shut down James Harden or Lebron James or Russell Westbrook or Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan, they will do it 99% of the time. It's easy. Even an average defensive team is capable of achieving a singular goal like that and ignoring others. However, an excellent defensive team will be able to do that AND give the other 4 players little breathing room to take advantage. A bad defensive team will shut down Harden but the other 4 players will light it up, forcing adjustments, and then Harden will free up. This is not a playstation game. Every team and coach can shut down Harden, the difference is whether or not you can contain the other 4 players. This is not what the Spurs did against the Rockets in Game 3. What the Spurs did against the Rockets in game 3 is what we did to the Thunder in the first round. Don't worry too much about Harden's points as long as he has to work so hard to get them that he is tired, meanwhile shutdown all his teammates for the night. As Kevin Durant put it, you don't want Harden doing the shimmy. You want him breathing heavily all the time, losing focus on defense, feeling the need to settle for ill-advised 3's on tired legs. And James Harden is an offensive god. He will still get his most of the time, to the tune of 1.53 points per shot. 43 points on 28 shots, the kind of numbers that Westbrook dreams of getting, and the kind of offensive outburst that is a career night for 99% of scoring guards. But when you get him tired, you lose the mediocre defense he was giving us so far in the playoffs (which is highly undervalued), and you also are forcing him to make ever more difficult decisions to make passes in tighter and tighter angles resulting in 5 assists. Don't give me some bullshit about TO's until you find some people who average 10 assists and 10 free throw attempts turning it over less than James Harden - let me save you the time, there's only one dude and we knocked him out of the playoffs. Look, this roster is not great and I've said that from day 1 and I still believe that. But I believe in these guys' character, they have to outwork the Spurs, and most of them have to play a little better than they've ever played in the playoffs. This is their time. This is where Anderson can become legit. This is where Gordon can become a bonafide 3rd option. This is where Lou Williams' penetration is needed FAR more than his contested fade-to-the-side midrange jumpers. These guys don't owe us more than who they are, they have earned their paychecks. But what we need is for them to give us more than what they owe in order for us to beat the Spurs. The Spurs are really really good, and it's because of their system. It was obvious losing Parker would not affect them for the same reason that their lack of athleticism and speed doesn't affect them - they move the ball, and they move themselves very quickly when they don't have the ball. The run full speed when they are getting to their spots. They get back in transition with a 1 seconds headstart mentally, which is enough to shut another team's transition game down. These things don't require elite athleticism, they require concentration and mental creativity. We need our guys to think quicker. All Harden needs to do is make better decisions going to the basket, and he will do it because he's been doing it all season long and he's done it in this series prior to game 3. But when he passes the ball, guys need to have been ready to shoot 2 seconds before they get the ball and ignore the defender rushing out towards them. You get blocked shooting a 3 a couple of times, big deal. But be mentally ready early and take the time your shot mechanics need. Lou Williams and Eric Gordon need to attack attack attack in the first 2 seconds they have the ball, and if it's not available pass the ball and move yourself somewhere useful. When Harden is off the floor the ball needs to move almost as though no one wants to keep it until they're open. You can pass the ball 7 times in 7 seconds and we need to, because that's what it takes to beat the best defense in the league. Our defense is fine just need Harden to play mediocre defense again. Stop arguing with the f'in refs, the whining is getting us nowhere and it's making them hate us and turn on us in 50-50 situations. Put Beverley on Mills all game long, keep Gordon on Ginobili/Murray. Also, give Dekker 10 minutes at the 4. We got this. We're winning the next 2.
Harden has to take more midrange shots against smarter and more talented defenses. He can't just settle for the 3 or driving in to the paint when it's covered up well. His midrange shot would add a third element to our attack that we lack right now. The Spurs defense is showing no respect to our midrange attack because we aren't threatening them there.
It's one way to go but I'm not confident in our fate being placed at the mercy of Harden's 4th most proficient shot with Green/Kawhi/Aldridge/Gasol chasing him and at least 1 rim protector within 5 feet of him. It's easy to close out from rim to mid range. The 3 and paint are excellent options because there's 20+ feet between them. If that's what it's come to, in my opinion, we have lost the series already and should pack it up. We are not going to beat the Spurs with Harden taking midrange shots just like the Spurs are not going to beat us with Kawhi getting 12 assists and holding the ball a lot. If they are not giving Harden the paint, and they are not giving him open 3's, then he needs to drive and make a decision when he's in the mid range area. He can't jump in the air then make the decision. There is absolutely no way that the Spurs are locking down Harden while being defensively SET to guard the paint, and covering the corners too. That's just physics, it can't happen, there are only 5 guys on each team. IF they are doing all that somehow, then you have to go to something else, but if you re-watch the game you will see that they are not doing that. Harden is waiting for them to commit and they will not commit to anything until he's too far into the drive and has already eliminated 2 of the 3 options from himself. They will let him try to score over Gasol/Aldridge, but we're not going to get enough points up with just that one option that eats up a ton of energy. It's plain as day for me personally. This series has nothing to do with how much Harden scores and everything to do with how many assists Harden/team has. Harden softballing it to shooters is not going to work. We need crisp, quick, frequent laser-like passing and we need to get the ball up the court very quickly. Harden put up 48. Why would him making 3-4 mid range J's change anything they do? It's not going to make them leave the shooters or guard him any different. They'll give him a semi contested midrange J. Pop wants nothing more than for us to do that. What we need is Harden to get back to making great decisions about pace and passing. Look this is the best defensive team in the NBA. THE BEST. There were 16 teams better than us on defense who were still not as good as the Spurs. And this is the playoff Spurs after getting humiliated in Game 1. If we come back with a James Harden mid range plan, we are backing down and going to what we don't do best. We have to get the 3 or the paint and we have the players to do it if they understand we have to execute the same plays sharper and faster than we've done in 82 regular season games and 8 playoff games. We got this man. Humans adjust. The Spurs defense has shocked our guys, but you can see it's slowly starting to settle that this is how it is. This is the defense we're going to face for every round if we want to keep playing. Just like they went back to a sharper version of who they are at their core, we have to do the same.
They all need to shoot better, not only to beat San Antonio, but to stand any chance against Golden State.
