Sorry wasn't spcifically talking about your post! Was just making a general observation about the board. I DO think that if the Warriors, cavs, clippers play this kind of stupid defense on Harden we WOULD win with Harden hitting 36 something percent if he's taking only 14-ish shots, dropping 20+ points and leading both teams in assists. Yes, I absolutely think we would win. That's why we're winning!! Harden is not scoring poorly. He's just shooting long distance shots poorly. Close range shots, he's getting hammered before putting the ball up and getting free throws and hitting them so he's "making" those. His FT% is good. We're highlighting a single stat - FG% - when he is clearly blowing away far more reasonable metrics when it comes to judging efficiency of scoring. Carlisle is banking on Harden to become selfish when realizing his FG% is poor. Harden's not falling for it, he's just owning it. I don't know that Harden's offense will be more efficient than this IF teams play him this way. I do know that if teams play him this way and he plays the way he's playing, we can beat anyone because we have the role players also perfectly suited to taking advantage of that.
I felt like in the first half he was hitting the open man every time, and they were not converting. Second half...What can you say, Smith and Howard just had it rolling.
Exactly, just stop it guys, Harden was doing great in the 1st and so-so in the 2nd. Guess what, Josh stunk up the place in the 1st and we are praising him like crazy because of his 2nd half. Granted he almost had a triple-double in the 2nd half alone, but still. How easy people forget or just cannot see what Harden is doing and Mavs are trying to do.
If you foolishly judge a guy on points per game and FG% compared to his regular season numbers I can see why you would think his performance thus far this postseason would make you say that, but there's not much else to make the case. His scoring efficiency compared to the regular season is only slightly down by 2.2% His assists, points per shot, assist to turnover ratio, rebound rate, turnover rate are all better than his MVP worthy season long numbers.
Correction:Terrible playoff shooter. So far... Without him though, we dont get high court traps, which allows him to pocket pass to Smoove, which leads to.... <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>There is no way to defend this. <a href="https://t.co/M4RhX5fcKz">https://t.co/M4RhX5fcKz</a></p>— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) <a href="https://twitter.com/bballbreakdown/status/590720505554022401">April 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
If Harden is nothing more than a decoy that gets to shoot free throws every now and then because of the way he's being guarded, then so be it as long as we are winning games.
The game plan for the Mavs is to stop/slow down Harden. Yes, he didn't shoot the best but he didn't stop the flow of the game or throw off the rhythm of the rest of the team by trying to force anything. Harden still got 20+ points and if they counted hockey assists in the NBA he would of had a lot of assists. He spoiled us for 82 games this season, we won when harden played a decent game and we criticize him for not going God mode.
Carlisle is going to have to make a choice, likely in Game 3. He's going to have to see what happens if they back off Harden some and defend the whole court. When that happens, James will take over. You take what is given to you and he's doing everything right to make sure the Rockets are winning. The awesome thing (and the thing all the pundits said wouldn't happen) is that we're kicking a good team's ass while Harden isn't dominating the scoring column.
The only way to defend this play is if you have a person capable of covering Harden off a screen without any help. There are only about 2-3 players in the league that can. Unfortunately they play for the Spurs and the Warriors.
I think with everyone else ballin out he won't have that it's all up to you factor in the back of his head
Harden sat almost 3/4 of the 4th qtr and we still built a lead. Harden is doing exactly what an MVP should be doing. He is leading his team. When its time to hit the big shot and shoot well...he'll be there. Book it
Everyone who thinks Harden is having a bad series needs to read this about 10 times. Like a TRUE MVP, Harden is doing exactly what we need him to do, based on the opponent's game plan, and doesn't give a sh!te how it affects his individual stats.
he was killing it in the 1st quarter, but his confidence seemed to go away...thats the disturbing trend.
This is the definition of "Harden makes his teammates better" So much attention required by one guy releases the pressure on the other 4 guys. Same thing applies to Howard - Opposing teams can try and entirely stop one guy, in which case the other guy steps up, and role players live up to expectations.
I think Harden being a decoy is what makes him so special. He's letting his teammates pick the Mav's apart.
