To me, its a tie between Harden and McHale as far as the reason why Rox are down 1-3. Like I've said multiple times, in these playoffs and in general, the Rox will go as far as Harden will take them. I feel McHale's poor coaching and accountability have held Harden back as far as Harden becoming a more mature player. If Harden's ass would have been planted on the bench more during the regular season to drill home the need for him to give a **** on the defensive end and to value the ball on the offensive end, I firmly believe we would be seeing a different Harden. All Harden needs is to be coached up by a good coach. In the mean time, the team is at the mercy of Harden and hoping he gets on hot streak to have a chance at not bowing out in first round again. Because of this team's lack of any real offensive game plan, especially down the stretch, Harden is given a lot of leeway because he is the teams best one on one player. The ball stops down the stretch due to no game plan so if Harden and/or Howard are not hot down the stretch in their one one one situations, the Rox are in major trouble, hence that's why they are on the brink of being eliminated.
Very well said. I wouldn't have made the same points if this had been posted before I wrote mine. Too many people responding to the Lin hate threads (which I also disagree with) by blasting our best player for performing below his standard for four (really three) games.
I dont think anyone is hating on Harden, in fact, I find criticism of Harden to be more objective than the blind hate directed towards Lin. I think Harden's game, as currently constructed, isn't really built for the playoffs.
And you proceed to compare and even took a direct shot at Lin's race. That's pretty sad dude. As far as Harden's struggle. There has been just a few double, but certainly not enough to be even close to a primary defensive scheme by Portland. He's being guarded 1-1 by Matthew or Batum. And he's not guarding anyone on the other end. He's the primary option and the super star of this team. Of course he's going to get blame the most, rightfully so or not, even after the brain fart by Lin in game 4.
We are talking about great players here- Harden, Westbrook and George. So it can obviously be tough to say who is better and when it comes down to it, you almost have to nitpick things to try to choose one. My biggest complaint against Westbrook has nothing to do with his actual skills. He has the ability to take over games. He has the ability to feel like he has to take over a game when he really doesn't have to, and tries to do too much. It's like when Bill Simmons talks about a guy saying 'Alright guys, I got this', when you really don't want him to do that. Guys like Lance Stephenson and Stephen Jackson back in his day. Westbrook is obviously more talented than either of those, but he has some of the same tendencies sometimes.
Harden is the only one not playing up to standard among the 4 allstars in this series, while all other three have played above standard consistently. No excuse to play poorly on offense on top of bad defense.
We are down 3-1 to a team that we really shouldn't be down 3-1 to. We want to know why and we want to point fingers and blame one person. That would be so much easier. If we could just say, 'It's all Kevin McHale's fault!', or 'It's all Jeremy Lin's fault!' or 'It's all the referees fault!' then it would be much easier for us to try to hire a new coach, or trade for a different PG, or complain to the NBA. But I really don't think it is any of those things. All of those things, and more, have played a small contributing part to our struggles in this series, but our team has much more improvement to do if we want to compete for a championship than just finding one small problem like that to fix.
Another thing that is completely mind-boggling is the fact that Harden has actually played very well against the Blazers in the regular season. Let's compare some stats: Playoffs: 27.5 PPG 5.5 APG 5.3 RPG 1.3 SPG 3.8 TO 35% FG, 27% 3PT, 87% FT RS: 30.3 PPG 5.3 APG 7.3 RPG 2.3 SPG 5.0 TO 48% FG, 45% 3PT, 86% FT Keep it mind that he scored almost 3 points more per game in the RS despite taking 6 less shots. The shooting percentages drop significantly, especially the three point percentage - 18% down from the regular season games against Portland. Now, I know that defenses tighten up in the playoffs and that the refs won't give him the same calls compared to the regular season, but other than that, Harden is facing the exact same team with the same players. That makes it even more incomprehensible. Maybe I'm completely wrong on this, but when I see him play in this series, it almost seems as though he doesn't really know what to do with the ball in his hands. He takes way too long to decide which move he's going to make. Especially in certain pick and roll situations when Howard sets a screen, he sometimes just stands there for 5 seconds until he decides what to do with the pick. Use the pick or not, but don't waste valuable seconds of the shot clock deciding what to do. That most likely has something to do with Portland being able to almost completely shot down his drives to the left. Then again, it's not like he didn't face that defense in the regular season. I really think it is not over yet; however, for us to still have a shot at winning this series, Harden HAS to step up offensively.
In this Portland series James Harden just is not getting to the FT line (whereas in the regular season he feasted on it). That is a huge part of his game and gets him in rhythm. Refs just aren't calling those drives to the basket. Harden is going to have to hit more of those jab/step-back jumpers. Harden has to play great, for the team to be great. As for Lin, he needs to be a solid, scoring 6th man to not allow scoring lulls while the starters are resting. Everyone has roles and they need to do their part.
Well lets say all 3 were to become free agents this summer, you only have the capspace to sign one, you have equal needs at PG SG SF, who do u sign?
I hope that I have been very clear in my previous posts- I am in no way trying to blame James Harden for any of our 3 losses. Not any more than I am trying to blame Jeremy Lin or McHale. I really think that it has been a combination of several things. I do, however, feel like Jeremy Lin had one very costly and very visual mistake at the end of Game 4, and because of that the hate and the blame against Jeremy Lin has escalated to a ridiculous level. At the risk of bringing up fresh wounds, take a look at that play again. This time, watch Harden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh_wLpQjh6k Notice at the beginning of the play he stands there and watches the ball while the player he is guarding makes a backcut. He is on the other side of the court before Harden even notices. Then for the majority of the play he just stands around, only really looking like he gives effort when he tries to close out on Batum at the very end. Notice how Portland on offense has basically had two strategies. Give the ball to LMA, or give the ball to whoever Harden is guarding. Again, let me re-clarify myself, I am not trying to blame Harden completely for us losing this series right now. I just think the blame and hate against Lin has gone way too far when our team, as a whole, has had a lot of other issues as well. Jeremy Lin will never be considered a superstar in this league. James Harden already is. And as a superstar, his performance and his competitiveness will always be judged more harshly. His "legacy" will be built or defined by his postseason success or failures- look at T-Mac. Or even Chris Webber and Karl Malone, who are still being talked about in that new Damian Lillard commercial (which is hilarious, btw).
Even Harden played well in the series, the referees would blow more whistles against us. It is called TNT drama. I am not blaming anybody.
The reason harden is more to blame for the rockets playoff word is because he took 103 shots and bricked so many of them. That's 103 shots that could've been spread to more people with open looks, layups etc. though Lin is about 36% this series, still higher than harden, he took much less shots, so it doesn't hurt the team as much. Each game, each side has about 80 something shot attempts. If harden took 103 shot attempts thru 4 games, that's like saying harden is the only shooter on the team for 1 and a quarter game. I haven't added lin's total shot attempts, but my guess is that it wasn't as detrimental to the team as hardens shots. And overall lin's percentage is higher than harden
I think it's hilarious that supposedly a 4 game sample is enough to show that the league has figured Harden out and that he can't draw fouls in the playoffs. He went to the line 9.1 times per game during the season and is going 7.8 times per game in this massive 4 game sample. HUGE drop off. And every other year of his career his free throws per game has gone UP in the playoffs.
A couple of facts: The majority of this board will always hate Lin even after he played pretty good in game 1 and 3. The critical turnovers just added fuel to the fire. Harden is getting into more of a rhythm after playing atrocious in game 1 and 2. He is learning to deal with the Blazers shot blocking by looking for Dwight more on the drive and shooting the midrange shot in rhythm. I expect Harden to perform better next game.
