Can we start giving Harden props for his good defense lately?

Exactly what "success" did Teletovic or Gutierrez have vs Harden? Teletovic had exactly 1 basket with Harden guarding him and zero assists. Gutierez didn't score a basket or get an assist with Harden guarding him.

 

I'm willing to say that Harden's defense lost us this game vs Toronto.

sigh...that was painful to watch

 

That's 2 really painful ones in a row.

 

It was actually Lin's defense.

 

Who was he guarding? What mistakes did he make?

 

If you're arguing for the sake of arguing I'm not going to waste my time. You've been here for awhile, you must know a decent amount of bball, he made more bad defensive plays than good ones. I am not determining success by pound or assists because a wide open shot caused by poor defensive judgment that was missed is still a bad play in my mind. Giving up dribble penetration that leads to another player scoring or the defense getting stretched thin forcing other players to be put in bad positions is a bad play. Maybe we agree to disagree if you think otherwise. Bottom line, he's our best player. He's our best chance at a championship so I apologize if I hold him to a higher standard because I just want the Rockets to do well. For all the talent he wields if only he could be slightly better on defense it would mean wonders for the team overall. That I hope you can't disagree with.

 

Off ball defense. He lost sight of Terence Ross on numerous occasions, and was also not much of a help defender. He just loses sight of his man and is lazy in his help role.

It looked like Toronto actually made him guard along the baseline, rather than out front, because they new he'd lose sight of Ross.

Don't defend Hardin on this game. It's not the game to do so.

 

Don't respond to me LOF. You bore me. Find someone else to respond to. Can't be that hard.

Don't respond to me LOH. You bore me. Find someone else to respond to. Can't be that hard.

 

Just stop. Your troll skills are seriously lacking.

Jumping from thread to thread with the same tired shtick... sigh.

 

This place sucks after losses.

 

Harden is going to get criticized the most because he's our best player, but I saw little defensive effort from anyone tonight.

 

you're kidding right? He gets the most free passes on the team because of his regular 20+ scoring. He can apparently not defend - at all, run too many isolation plays, cough up 6 TO's and still be blameless. Boggles the mind.

 

First post to Clutchfans so please be gentle... Harden has looked pretty disinterested in playing defense the last few games (last night and tonight especially). The troubling thing is that he can play fairly decent defense when he actually puts an effort into it. Very disturbing that this team constantly builds double digit leads, but can seldom hold on to them through out games.

 

The funny part is when Harden's man cuts backdoor and gets a wide open dunk, before Harden turns his head to look back at his man.

 

Meh....
Seen that before... What is as bad as Harden committing the wrong way and adjusting two steps late? The lack of any posterior defense and lack of smooth rotations... A horrible series all the way around. I guess atleast Harden chased him to the hole, 3 months ago he would have just stared.

The defense REALLY misses Howard and Beverley....

 

This place turns into a parody of itself after losses

 

The point is he gives up on so many plays - he could have still gotten a piece of that shot - I haven't seem him even get a legit block in awhile and he definitely can when he wants to. Really looks like he's just trying to save himself for the playoffs.

 

I don't disagree with you. Casspi should have rotated to cut off the driver. But you sounded like a LOF dismissing criticism against Lin by focusing the fault of other players, only you were dismissing criticism against Harden.

I see lots of hypocrisy, posters doing the same things they accuse the Lin fans of doing.

 

Joe Johnson is slow as heck but he drives past Harden easy. The effort isn't there.