The first weekend of playoff games are over and guess who is leading the entire playoffs in defensive rating... https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/stats/2021/Advanced_Stats/All/drtg/All/asc/1/Playoffs crazy how people think harden somehow had a bad game if he doesn’t score 35
Yes, small sample size, and individual def stats have big flaws anyhow. But an interesting thing about that list is one of the reason individual DRtg is flawed is bc the players on any given team are usually bunched together, Harden is pretty significantly separated from the ratings of his teammates. This is interesting to me, bc the stat is heavily influenced by the whole team’s rating during the player’s time on the floor. ... example, Spurs players are often overrated by that stat, bc the whole team improves everyone’s individual rating. I wouldn’t expect any one player to be standing out from his teammates so much.
Small sample size, but the top 15 consists of players like Bam, Holiday, Giannis, Iggy, Thybulle and Robert Williams. That's not a bad list. It'd be less credible if like, Lillard was near the top. Also, LOL @ Anfernee Simons' 219.4 offensive rating. Sheeeesh.
We all know Harden is a great defender when he is locked in and he doesn't have to chase an active guard all over the place. He's literally the best post defender in the league that isn't a 4/5.
Harden played great defense but so did the Nets as a team. I think the difference here is that the rotations had Harden alone with the bench during those minutes when Kyrie and KD sat -- this is smart because Harden plus scrubs is still an effective offense. But it also means that Harden had the most minutes against the Celtics bench, which is notoriously terrible.
Nets with 12 assists in the 1st quarter...they have the 3 best ISO scorers in the game, but also move the ball and average a lot of assists Harden didn’t even take a shot in the 1st quarter, and they dominated offensively...in Houston, we’d be down 15 and he’d be choking
