http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/play...ffs-james-harden-coming-short-postseason-play If anyone could offer a quick summary or breakdown of the article, I would appreciate it. Thanks!
He better show up tonight.. Your star players are supposed to elevate their game and lead the way on the road.
On Thursday, Kevin Durant stepped up. Now it's time for his former teammate to follow suit. Thanks to Durant's big Game 6, James Harden of the Houston Rockets is now the biggest playoff disappointment this side of Roy Hibbert. While Harden's defensive shortcomings have been well documented, he was supposed to make up for them at the other end. With the Portland Trail Blazers contesting his every move, Harden has been unable to do that during this series, which the Blazers will try to close out at home in tonight's Game 6. How has Portland done it? And how can Harden and Houston respond to try to keep their season alive? Let's take a look. Keeping Harden out of the paint First and foremost, the Blazers have achieved their goal of denying Harden easy opportunities. During the regular season, 30.6 percent of his shot attempts came in the restricted area, according to NBA.com/Stats. That figure has dropped by a third in the playoffs to 20.5 percent -- a difference of between two and three shots close to the basket per game. Keeping Harden away from the hoop starts in transition. Per Synergy Sports, transition opportunities were the single biggest source of Harden's shots during the regular season, accounting for more than a quarter of his attempts. In this series, that's down to 15 percent, depriving Harden of his most efficient opportunities. The next piece of the puzzle is on-ball defense from Wesley Matthews, with assistance from Nicolas Batum. Both players have aggressively denied Harden the ball and done a good job of keeping him in front of them defensively. Matthews' strength has been particularly effective in this matchup. Still, it's impossible for a single defender to contain Harden, and the Blazers' big men have been conscious of where he is at all times, leaving them ready to provide help defense. Harden has had 8.6 percent of his shot attempts blocked in this series, as compared to 5.0 percent during the regular season. Keeping Harden off the line In addition to preventing Harden from getting easy attempts around the basket, Portland has taken away his easiest attempts of all -- free throws. During the regular season, Harden attempted .552 free throws for every field goal attempt. That has declined to a .322 free throw rate in this series. Intriguingly, Harden is still drawing fouls just as often overall. However, according to Synergy Sports, 41 percent of the fouls he has drawn in this series have been shooting fouls, compared to 64 percent during the regular season. While Harden has baited Matthews into a few shooting fouls -- particularly in Game 1, when he drew five of his 13 shooting fouls in this series -- the Blazers have done an excellent job of staying down on Harden's fakes and avoiding his rip-through move. Harden has mostly gotten to the line in fast-break situations, where Portland has little choice but to foul. Frustration attempts Beyond what the Blazers' defense has done, Harden has contributed to his own problems with poor shot selection. Too often, he has gotten frustrated with his inability to get to the paint and has settled for contested shots from midrange -- exactly what the Rockets want to avoid. This pull-up attempt against Batum with plenty of time remaining on the shot clock is typical of Harden's frustration attempts: Harden Synergy Sports Technologies HARDEN SHOT SELECTION Location 2013-14 Playoffs Restricted Area .306 .205 Other Paint .108 .120 Midrange .186 .274 3-Pointers .400 .402 Though Harden has settled for some contested 3s as well, the biggest difference between his shot selection in the regular season and during the playoffs so far is 2-point attempts outside the paint. About one-sixth of the difference between Harden's true shooting percentage during the regular season (.618) and in this series (.471) is attributable to his shot distribution. Another sixth is explained by his free throw attempts being down. The rest can be credited to Harden shooting lower percentages at the rim (41.7 percent vs. 61.4 percent) and from 3-point range (25.0 percent vs. 36.6 percent). Solutions At the risk of restating the obvious, a good option to get Harden going is utilizing him in pick-and-rolls with Dwight Howard. After experiencing success with the two-man game featuring All-Stars in Portland, Houston went away from it somewhat during Game 5. Synergy tracked just three Harden-Howard pick-and-rolls that generated shot attempts. Because of the respect Portland must pay the threat of Howard rolling to the rim, Harden has been most successful at getting into the paint with Howard as the screener. Harden also has to be more decisive. While his patient, deliberate style has served him well in his career -- especially in terms of drawing fouls -- it's not working against an opponent that has him scouted well. Harden has been at his best when he has attacked aggressively while staying under control, as on the reverse layup he made with four minutes left in Game 5 as part of a run that secured the victory. Because Jeremy Lin and Chandler Parsons both stepped up to score 20-plus points, the Rockets were able to win on Wednesday with Harden making just five of his 15 shot attempts. Facing a hostile crowd tonight in Portland, the Rockets will surely need more from Harden to force a Game 7.
The urgency just hasn't been there. Plus he's trying to hard to draw contact than actually scoring the damn ball. For example, the play LMA had 2 fouls and was literally moving out the way of Harden to score. Instead of dunk the ball, Harden jumps into LMA drawing no contact and throws the ball away. Wtf? Are you serious? C'mon Harden. People will eventually stop making excuses for you. Your a LEADER! Stop pouting and handle your business
Stupid Harden and his effective isos. Doesn't he know that a lot of the clutchfans experts don't like his isos because they think they don't work.
Offensively, our centers need to set better pick for Harden. Let the game come to him. I'll hate it if he forces it and takes 30 shot with 30% rate. I think his main problem in defense is not that he cannot stay in front of his man. Rather, the main problem is his loss track of his man when the ball is away from his man, which sometimes leading to unguarded shooting/scoring. He should pay most of his attention to tracking his man.
yes he did state the obvious. run more picks and rolls which for some reason is not so popular with our team or milk hair.
Exactly, Harden does that waaaayyy tooo often!!! He just needs to look to score and not look for the foul.
On Thursday, Kevin Durant stepped up. Now it's time for his former teammate to follow suit. Thanks to Durant's big Game 6, James Harden of the Houston Rockets is now the biggest playoff disappointment this side of Roy Hibbert. While Harden's defensive shortcomings have been well documented, he was supposed to make up for them at the other end. With the Portland Trail Blazers contesting his every move, Harden has been unable to do that during this series, which the Blazers will try to close out at home in tonight's Game 6. How has Portland done it? And how can Harden and Houston respond to try to keep their season alive? Let's take a look. Keeping Harden out of the paint First and foremost, the Blazers have achieved their goal of denying Harden easy opportunities. During the regular season, 30.6 percent of his shot attempts came in the restricted area, according to NBA.com/Stats. That figure has dropped by a third in the playoffs to 20.5 percent -- a difference of between two and three shots close to the basket per game. Keeping Harden away from the hoop starts in transition. Per Synergy Sports, transition opportunities were the single biggest source of Harden's shots during the regular season, accounting for more than a quarter of his attempts. In this series, that's down to 15 percent, depriving Harden of his most efficient opportunities. The next piece of the puzzle is on-ball defense from Wesley Matthews, with assistance from Nicolas Batum. Both players have aggressively denied Harden the ball and done a good job of keeping him in front of them defensively. Matthews' strength has been particularly effective in this matchup. Still, it's impossible for a single defender to contain Harden, and the Blazers' big men have been conscious of where he is at all times, leaving them ready to provide help defense. Harden has had 8.6 percent of his shot attempts blocked in this series, as compared to 5.0 percent during the regular season. Keeping Harden off the line In addition to preventing Harden from getting easy attempts around the basket, Portland has taken away his easiest attempts of all -- free throws. During the regular season, Harden attempted .552 free throws for every field goal attempt. That has declined to a .322 free throw rate in this series. Intriguingly, Harden is still drawing fouls just as often overall. However, according to Synergy Sports, 41 percent of the fouls he has drawn in this series have been shooting fouls, compared to 64 percent during the regular season. While Harden has baited Matthews into a few shooting fouls -- particularly in Game 1, when he drew five of his 13 shooting fouls in this series -- the Blazers have done an excellent job of staying down on Harden's fakes and avoiding his rip-through move. Harden has mostly gotten to the line in fast-break situations, where Portland has little choice but to foul. Frustration attempts Beyond what the Blazers' defense has done, Harden has contributed to his own problems with poor shot selection. Too often, he has gotten frustrated with his inability to get to the paint and has settled for contested shots from midrange -- exactly what the Rockets want to avoid. This pull-up attempt against Batum with plenty of time remaining on the shot clock is typical of Harden's frustration attempts: Though Harden has settled for some contested 3s as well, the biggest difference between his shot selection in the regular season and during the playoffs so far is 2-point attempts outside the paint. About one-sixth of the difference between Harden's true shooting percentage during the regular season (.618) and in this series (.471) is attributable to his shot distribution. Another sixth is explained by his free throw attempts being down. The rest can be credited to Harden shooting lower percentages at the rim (41.7 percent vs. 61.4 percent) and from 3-point range (25.0 percent vs. 36.6 percent). Solutions At the risk of restating the obvious, a good option to get Harden going is utilizing him in pick-and-rolls with Dwight Howard. After experiencing success with the two-man game featuring All-Stars in Portland, Houston went away from it somewhat during Game 5. Synergy tracked just three Harden-Howard pick-and-rolls that generated shot attempts. Because of the respect Portland must pay the threat of Howard rolling to the rim, Harden has been most successful at getting into the paint with Howard as the screener. Harden also has to be more decisive. While his patient, deliberate style has served him well in his career -- especially in terms of drawing fouls -- it's not working against an opponent that has him scouted well. Harden has been at his best when he has attacked aggressively while staying under control, as on the reverse layup he made with four minutes left in Game 5 as part of a run that secured the victory. Because Jeremy Lin and Chandler Parsons both stepped up to score 20-plus points, the Rockets were able to win on Wednesday with Harden making just five of his 15 shot attempts. Facing a hostile crowd tonight in Portland, the Rockets will surely need more from Harden to force a Game 7.
Using the eye test, the halfcourt offense has changed a lot from the regular season. The shorter rotation has a lot to do with that considering the personnel on the court has different skillsets; thus, the offense sets are limited. Harden is not getting the calls he got in the regular when he drives to the basket. Free throw attempts are just not as frequent for him, and they are a big part of his efficiency as far as points per shot attempt. The 3 pointer is the other thing, and he hasn't been as effective there. Probably because he's forcing it now just to get himself in a rhythm. So the different style of play plus the blazers' strategy of making him work on defense have led to Harden forcing things. That's just not his game. He needs to learn patience and when to play his game. If Howard has it going down low, then feed him until they stop it. When they do, read the defense's spacing and rotations, then ball so hard.
Mchale refuses to run pnr to get Harden going but will relentlessly get Dwight the ball in the post to get him going. weird.
I agree with the PnR suggestions. Seemed to work well earlier, have no idea why they went away from it in game 5, or why this wasn't more of a staple during the regular season. Last season Harden would PnR all the time with Asik, and now that we have a big that can actually roll we go away from it? We should also so some with Jones when he is in the game.
Harden just needs his attack mojo back. There are too many times in this series where he stopped too early or even backed out when he had a clear attack path to the basket. Attack and make the refs call fouls. When LMA has 3 fouls, attack him, don't settle or back out. When Lopez has 4 fouls because of Dwight, attack him, don't settle or back out. So what if a shot gets blocked. Keep attacking. Put pressure on the refs. Be relentless.
Harden needs to play as if there are no refs. He's not getting the calls he's been getting all season long. He needs to adjust, and quick.
It's the playoffs. You're playing against the best and hard nosed defense is allowed by the refs. Harden has to stop playing hero ball and shooting those contested jumpers and threes, 30 points on 35 shots is not going to cut it.
I'm not the person you were addressing, but my answer is no. Harden should play less hero ball, as that drains his clearly low reserves of energy. I want him to play some defense.
Agreed. Matthews has defended him very well, but we need to set picks to get him better looks and away from Matthews. That 3 last game seemed to wake him up a bit. I think he needs to see his shot fall a couple of times to get the mojo back.
