James Harden played with a sense of desperation. The second to last three he hit from the corner after the Lakers deflection was huge because it came off of blown assignment. The Lakers had him trapped on the baseline, when Lance Stephenson let harden off the hook by closing out to Austin river. Lance Stephenson should not have left Harden when Caldwell Pope had harden trapped on the baseline. Why would Stephen leave harden and close Austin rivers after harden is going off for 40+ points? The third three was a behind the back rhymthm jumper over caldwell Pope where harden clearly had the height advantage to just shoot right over the top of kcp. Harden was pushing a lil on some of the step back three pointers. If Lakers sweep Houston in the season series, don't expect bill walton back as the coach for Lakers in 2019-2020.
I read that too and knew it was incorrect. When I checked the stats at halftime, Kuzma was high scorer at 24 pts, and Harden had 16 pts. Kuzma score another 6 pts in the second half and Harden scored another 32 pts in the second half.
I can't remember exactly which game. I think it might have been after the Warriors game. He said people need to be focusing on the greatness of what he's doing, instead of talking about him being fouled too much.
We focus too much on the media perception of James instead of appreciating how much of a blessing this guy is for our franchise. Got snubbed out of an MVP and then came back better. Snubbed again and came back even better. Finally Won MVP and somehow came back a player that’s drawing comparisons to the likes of Michael effing Jordan. My goodness...
I thought the biggest gesture from James Harden was pointed out by Marc Jackson during Lakers game. James Harden was sitting at 48 points and all he has to do is to demand the ball and he will get 2 free throws to score another 50 points to make it 3 games in a row where he scores 50 or more. That would have been a monumental achievement in today's NBA. He let Eric Gordon have the ball. He won many hearts just that alone.
He also did that in the warriors game, he sat on MDA's seat in the 3rd quarter and was talking to the players and everyone was paying attention True leader right there man
Or when he banked in that big three to keep us within 3 with 30 seconds left, he signaled to calm the rest of the guys on the court that they still had work to be done.
Did this a few games ago when he hit a go ahead shot with 2 seconds left, no celebration or self congratulation at all. The only thing I've noticed him do lately is after he's hit a tough shot in a defender's face, he'll turn around and give him a little tap on the ass as he's running back on defense. Did it to Klay last time, and seen it on a few other occasions.
It's maturity beginning to set in. Or maybe the team is realizing that immortality was only a myth. Capaela gone down. Gordon is a crossover or collision away from being banged up, and so is Chris Paul.
I doubt anyone said anything to him. He is playing without CP3 and Capela and has played a lot of minutes and is in a dog fight in the West. Couple that with coming off a loss to the Nets. He didn’t have time or the energy to do anything but take care of business. Also I have noticed that as the last two months have gone on, James Harden has gotten more comfortable and confident that this IS who he is, that this isn’t a few big games... this James NOW. This is early Michael Jordan stuff...
Yeah what is over looked all the time about James Harden is how intelligent he is. He is bright on and off the court and because he hit strip clubs at 23 and has a huge beard, no one gives him his due.... there are only a few players in the league that process things as fast as he does.
Harden has clearly gotta over the time 39 year old, manu ginobilli blocked his shot back in 2017, after which the Spurs closed out the rockets with a 40 point blow-out. Smh.
I get this feeling very much also. He is more and more comfortable with himself and know what he can do. But I also see a very sudden change in his altitude. Just days ago, he was talking about MVP, I need it, I will get it. He tried to get that 2 pts to continue his 40pts streak in the Portland game. In the last interview with ESPN, after the game, he talked down his individual stats, and to me, was sincerely focusing more on the team than on himself. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I hope that's the case. And it wouldn't surprise me a bit that something click inside for him to make that jump - he got nothing else to prove individually. The only thing left is taking the team all the way. p.s. maybe all these injuries is a blessing. Would Harden have excelled to this level, pushing new limit if he wasn't put into a must do it all situation?
I stated what I remember. If it was his exact words, I would put them in quotes. https://sports.yahoo.com/harden-focus-greatness-not-fouls-090522237.html Harden leads the NBA in free throws attempted (11.1) and made (9.4) per game and prior to the match Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Harden was "changing the game" with the way he draws fouls. Asked if he felt too much energy was spent on critiquing that aspect of his play, Harden said: "Exactly. I've got the total package. I get to the basket, I'm aggressive and I shoot my shot. "Don't foul me on my jump shot and we won't have to talk about it. It's as simple as that. "[People] talk too much about my fouls and not actually the greatness of what I'm doing out on the court. That's what we need to focus on."
