When did we not blame lin. We do, but we are acting like Lin is fully responsible for the loss due to the last minute play. Come on! It's the inability to hold on to leads too!
Durant, Westbrook, Nowitzki, Wall, and Randolph are actually facing elite defenses though. Portland's defense is in the bottom half of the league and the 2nd worst defense of western conference playoff teams.
Harden's value drops a ton after the first 4 games. He can't even own Matthew SMH. It would make sense if it was Paul George guarding him. But Matthew? Wow.. Even more worrying is his effort on D. Dude doesn't give it a ****E. At this rate, he be Arenas 2.0
This is completely true, if Harden was at least trying on defence we wouldn't be in situations where a single turnover becomes 'the sole reason we lose a game' (like some people here claim).
Have you counted the non-calls on Harden though? He went to the rim, was hammered, and no foul called. How can that not deflate you?
If only 4 of those times baskets has been made, thats at least 8 points of freebies. We would have swept the blazers.
Who cares about that, I really couldn't care less IF Harden was actually trying to win. What I wouldn't give for a T-mac who at least dove on the floor a few times as opposed to this guy who just stands there..
As we keep losing and rumblings about him grow louder, he'll change his tune and realize D is important. Like Sampson said, he WILL learn eventually that playing both ends is equally as important. It's a shame that this doesn't sink in sooner though.
Its just so dissappointing that Mchale didn't really drill it into his head after the FIRST season ended.
Matthews and Portland are turning out to be much tougher defensively that during the regular season. Sounds like their coach made some key adjustments. The fact that other star players are having rough shooting nights in the playoffs should calm down some of these ridiculous "trade/bench Harden" threads. Unless those folks are ready to trade and bench Durant, Westbrook et al...
The reffing is bad both ways. They kept Portland in the first half of game 1, and tried to give it back to us in the 2nd half. The other games blend into one, but we pissed them away more than the refs took anything from us. Trust me, there's no conspiracy. The league and its TV partners want overtimes and game 6s, not 4-0 sweeps. Harden's lack of calls doesn't deflate me because I called this **** in october. "IMO, counting on the refs for those calls in a game 6 on the road is just as risky as leaving Dwight in for Hack-a-Dwight. Are they calling the foul if another star is guarding him, or do they swallow the whistle and leave us with a 34%FG iso?" All the Moreyball stat heads kept saying the calls are the same in the playoffs, the game is played the same, the offense will work. Well... the refs swallowed the whistles, Portland cut out all that easy transition bucket ****, and sure enough he's iso-ing and shooting 35%.
