<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Parsons on overcoming Harden's struggles: "We have such a balanced team we have multiple guys who can step up. We believe in each other."</p>— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/statuses/461738641769758721">May 1, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Dude just needs to knock down his shots. He's gotten plenty of open looks, they're just not falling. He'll get more confidence if he can just start off by hitting some of his 3's. Not sure it's any more complicated than that.
Great points. But he doesn't strike me as a weak willed player. He's been beastly clutch since he's joined the rockets. It wasn't that long ago where there were threads talking about the IT DNA that few players possess and James was one of them. So Matthews and batum play aggressive D and he's done?
His body language and demeanor is the same it has been all season. Stop trying to create controversy out of nothing. He isn't hitting his shots and he has two great defenders taking turns on him.
He has a habit of checking out when defenders hound him. Pj Tucker and Tony Allen have done this to him before
One game and Lin's completely redeemed himself? Lin is a role player and role players tend to play better at home. He's been trash on the road this and last year in the playoffs and I'll be shocked if he doesn't revert back to form. Harden playing off the ball = Harden standing around the perimeter doing nothing at all and just waiting for a pass so he can jack up a contested three or drive into multiple defenders. Just face it, Lin/Harden doesn't work as a pair due to their redundancies.
a good coach would figure out how to utilize harden better in the face of a tough defense. it's happening in OKC right now with WB and KD 35. it happened with harden when he was on OKC. it's happening again with mchale. i dont think it's a coincidence both teams revert to isolation plays using their star players.
well the tendencies for harden are the same tendencies for lebron (but opposite hands)...if harden goes left, he's going all the way, if he goes right (weaker hand) he's going for the stepback/pull up...blazers noticed this
Doesn't Harden look bored and disengaged all the time? He's a pretty stoic guy. The beard probably hides some emotion too.
Someone should let us know whats going on in riddle form... so we can decipher it Sherlock Holmes style.
The playoffs are exposing Harden's limitations. If he isn't getting to the line, he isn't as big a scoring threat because he doesn't shoot that well from the field, especially inside the 3 pt line. On top of that, he has been a liability on defense and is hurting the offensive flow with too much isolation basketball. But as Bill Simmons says, he's a streaky offensive player that can pick it up at a moment's notice, just as he did in the last few minutes of Game 5.
Let me help you all out, it called they know they have to stop Harden to win, they know harden is the heart and soul of the rockets, they playing good D on him, he is ok, as long as he doesn't hold the ball, and play hero ball.
I thought Harden actually looked great in game 1. He just missed shots that he normally makes. He was getting a lot of good shots, playing smart, being aggressive, and even getting calls in the 2nd half. The failure of that game seems like it kind of carried over into the next two games, and after that, it seems like he sort of became depressed or something. But he came up big at the end of the last game... I'm actually really optimistic about that. I think it is a great sign going into game 6. We may get our first big game from him, and the timing couldn't be better if so.
This hopefully. You'd expect the law of averages to apply as well meaning his shots will drop. I think we and Harden will be fine.
Maybe he's unhappy coz he's not hitting his shots? He still had 17 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. +10 +/- He must be really good if u guys are b****ing about these numbers after a playoff win. He spoiled u. Get on your knees and thank James Harden.
Rockets "fans": Some non-idiot comments: He's clearly let all the negativity get to him, it snowballs, and now he's in a slump. It has happened to lots of good players before in the playoffs, and will happen again. Hopefully he gets his confidence and aggression back for game 6 and has a big one. I've seen players go into stretches like this within a series and then bounce back late in the series, or go into a slump against a particular match-up and then hit re-set and play well in the next series. Since I actually like the team and want them to win, I'm really hoping he can find the mental resolve to bounce back and play well in these next two games.
He is just in a slump, and needs shots to fall to get out of it. Hopefully he start hitting them early next game and go from there.
