Lin is a mental midget. Tmac was soft. Harden for damn sure is not perfect. Get yer pitchforks ready.
What part don't you quite comprehend? Harden's lackadaisical at times and doesn't seem to show any instinct to destroy his opponents. Its fair & completely constructive criticism
That's your opinion. Still doesn't negate the fact that your negativity brings nothing productive to this thread.
He has been a great leader for us, but is it only the locker room, at practices, behind the scenes? Our players do a great job of separating teammates during altercations and cooling down heads, supporting each other, I don't doubt that. But what we need is a motivational leader on the court during games. I think people forget how easily we could have lost game 3 and it would've been an even series. The problems where we lose our focus, our intensity, and defensive effort have been rampant all season when we lose large leads after having taken control of a game. Then it's a new ball game and we're scrambling to retake the lead. There's no denying this. It's happened all season long, and should be more scrutinized during the postseason when it's losing us games. Someone on our team has to teach us to regain our focus and defensive intensity, either McHale, Harden, Dwight, or anybody else on our team. We were able to pull out one game after losing focus, couldn't do it twice in a row. Better teams will take more advantage of this as we progress into further rounds.
Unless you have access to the huddles or exclusive access to the on-court exchanges, arguing that Harden is not a leader on the court seems totally unfounded (to me). I've attended nearly every home game this year, and he is always talking. Not sure what more people want from him. I'm going to trust the word of the guys who are in the trenches with him and consistently praise his leadership / willingness to get in their asses, unlike last year -- over assumptions made by fans who have no access to what any of these guys are saying -- 10x out of 10.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>If you'd prefer a longer pregame read, ICYMI, Harden grew as a leader in his breakout season <a href="http://t.co/WvrQFR3ykt">http://t.co/WvrQFR3ykt</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonChron">@HoustonChron</a></p>— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/589569592495722496">April 18, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I'm not the one criticizing james Harden's personality and making up illogical reasoning for one loss. It's not an opinion. It's the truth.
I'll take your word for it that he's constantly talking to his team. That still doesn't address our big issues of how to regain our focus and intensity. Either our leader (coach, Harden, Dwight, whoever) isn't doing a good job at reinforcing people's roles, calming them down, telling them to stick to the gameplan and plays and we'll pull out the win, getting our team to stop rushing shots and play transition defense, etc. or nobody is doing it. Our team has the talent to make a special postseason run. Mentally, it doesn't seem like we're all there 100% given our huge lapses of focus.
Aminu was the best perimeter player last night, that was a fact. When James Harden is on the court that should never be true.
Clearly people expect perfection from Harden for 82 games a year, then extra-perfection from Harden in the playoffs.
Sweeping a team no matter who it is prob the hardest thing to do in pro basketball. Case in point the GSW came back from 20 point 4th quarter deficit otherwise they would be 3-1 too. Some of you guys need to chill the mavs are not some scrubs like you guys made them out to be after the first 2 games. Complain if we lose to Tom night not a game 4 up 3-0 at their place. They got dirk chandler and Carlisle they weren't going to fold.
He seemed to do a good Job calming Josh down in the 4th In the game thread . .. someone said he told Josh to "Calm the F*** DOWN!" Rocket River
This is the point I think a lot of people in this thread are having a hard time understanding or are just in denial about. I believe Harden has grown in a lot of areas, that's why he's an MVP candidate this year. This team is no where near where they are without Harden's growth. But it can't be ignored that the focus and intensity from he and Dwight is still not where it needs to be at times, especially in a game like last night. It appeared Harden and Howard throughout the game played with the intensity of players content they were up 3-0 and didn't have the killer instinct. Talent alone doesn't give a player a killer instinct. Oh well, Rox are still in a good position to go on to second round. I'm hoping Harden and Howard gain more of a killer instinct as the playoffs go on. I think these types of situations in the playoffs are valuable learning opportunities for them.
It's not exactly a criticism. It's a critique. You can call it illogical but that doesn't make it so. You continue to be negative instead of addressing the subject at hand. Harden is not engaged as he could be and that May or may not be a limitation for this team. Now that's the truth.
One loss to a 50 win team, who have a couple of vets and a coach that have won a ring before. What did people expect? This isnt the Junior Varsity Eastern Conference, in the west the 2nd seed plays a 50 win 7th seed.
This has been beat to death and I'm personally "over" the game 4 loss and looking forward to the Rockets closing it out tomorrow night. But the expectation I believe was not necessarily the Rockets winning game 4, but not taking it for granted. Taking a game for granted is a huge let down.
I don't think they took anything for granted. The Mavs played a typically Game 4 that a team down 0-3 at home would play. They played desperate, threw different looks at us, and fed off the home crowd. Sometimes you get outplayed. People always want to blame the Rockets for losing rather than just acknowledge the Mavs played a great game. Houston didn't play particularly well, but that's going to happen from time to time.
