It's a mental thing. He has a bad game 1 and 2 and they have been playing him hard. His confidence is just low. If you can see, he hesitates on his crossovers, his step back, driving to the basket. He's even hanging to long on his shot. He's thinking too much.
He's not ready for prime time. Seems way out of shape. Needs to work on his endurance if he wants to last.
just quit taking terrible shots and get your teammates involved. screw your points and stats. if you aren't going, get other people going.
This. Harden can't breathe out there. His offense depends on him having room to take that first step or two, and they're not giving it to him. The bigger problem is that once he feels like he's not contributing, he compounds it by moping. Gotta give him credit for playing some solid D in the last few minutes tonight, though.
I only saw like 5 people including Dwight in the huddld I hope people don't start making that a big deal
It's likely a combination of factors. 1. Refs aren't giving him the calls he's used to getting. 2. He's visibly tired and noticeably unable to play through it. 3. Maybe he's injured but not making it public. 4. Matthews making life hard on both ends. 5. Frustrated that Howard is being featured in the post. 6. Perhaps feels that his 'star' is fading yet again in the postseason. And yes, as Codman says, there's tension in the locker room.
What has been going on is that he has been scouted for a seven game series and the Blazers have decided to take him out and let Howard get his without double teams. Wesley is being physical with Harden and he is getting way with it because refs are not going to call every single foul. If Blazers see that Harden is be about to go off, they put a longer and more athletic Batum on him. Long and athletic wing players have given Harden problems because he cannot create the space he needs against these kind of players. He isnt the quickest guy out there. They are tryig to keep him form driving left and as soon as Harden gets into the paint Blazers send the help early with another player taking a swipe at him and Lopez going for the block. Harden is not going to get those ticky tacky foul calls in the playoffs. Blazers are taking advantage of that. Lastly, because the Blazers have played Harden well this entire series, it is only natural for him to be down on himself. It has gotten into his head now. We have seen Lebron go through this in the finals against the Mavs. He just needs to accept it that this series and playoffs in general are all about grinding out wins. He needs to accept the ugly ball, stay aggressive, and be in the attack mode. His morale is down right now, is whats up. More than his play, I am disturbed by his lack of fight mentally. I am afraid James Harden's finals performance might not be an aberration, but rather a norm when it comes to playoff basketball, especially if he is being asked to be the top dog.
James is hurt. He had been doing a great job of playing through it, but then came that back to back Denver game...when he should have been sitting....Instead, Lurch played him and he went down in big time pain...hasn't been the same.
If we bad a different coach I feel this would have been adjusted. You need to find a way to get harden open looks and drives
Clutch, but Harden has for the most part been the anti-harden out of the gate every game this series. I will say he did resemble a bit like himself I'm game 3. But overall his body language has been terrible. This can't be just aggressive Defense right at the start of games. From what I've seen during the regular season, he is a competitive Beast. He may have had cold nights shooting, but you Could still see the fire in his play. That fire has inexplicably left him in the playoffs
1) Howard spoke up when McHale wouldn't... STOP PLAYING HERO BALL & PLAY SOME D. 2) Having personal problems with some of the strippers. Not as happy as he was going to Treasures anymore. Either way, he's getting $80 million plus so he should turn up and play with some heart or GTFO! Welcome to Houston Carmello Anthony!
I'm sure he is extremely happy they won, but just because he isn't jumping around doesn't mean he isn't interested. What have we won? what are we celebrating? have you seen James overxaggerate? I'm sure he's frustrated with his play, but give credit where it's due. He is the focal part of the Blazers D and it's making a difference. But Harden is just an overall laid back kind of guy, and honestly that is just the way he looks. It's rare he gets animated, but why should he if we are still down 3-2? #focused
Harden has his confident shot for the following reasons: 1) The 11 minute viral video about his defense. There's no doubt he was made aware of that video and I'm sure he was extremely embarrassed 2) Officiating has changed for the worst in terms of giving Harden the bail out calls he normally receives. Taking away the ability to draw fouls is a major game changer for him and limits his options. He's not a mid-range, catch and shoot, movement without the ball type of player, so he must be really frustrated 3) The stress of being a star player. It's only year 2 of being THE GUY and he knows he's going to be grilled if his team loses.
