Terry is right. I would count Beverley in that list though. Other role players make these kinds of performances necessary to win.
Some of you guys got it wrong. We don't need Harden to score 34 points in a half to win a game. I know some people WANT to say that our season's woe is because the role players can't play. That's just BS. They could play last season. You know what happened last night? Harden and the rest of the team decided to play defense in the second half. We needed Harden's 34 points to win because they dug themselves in a big hole in the first half. If they had started playing defense at the beginning, Harden didn't have to murder Portland's defense like that in order to win.
we're 29-29 for the season. for some, it's like harden won us 29 games and the other rockets lost us the other 29. even in a game like last night's, they'd fail to recognize others' contribution and the fact that harden played poorly in the first half and blindly call his play "mvp level" based on his heroics in the 2nd half alone. some take it further and their posts consist of primarily "you're wrong/stupid" w/o any reasoning, and call others who disagree with their views "irrational". i guess that's the very definition of player-only-fans...
I don't see why you are up in arms. The OP created a thread after harden had an exceptional game over all, no matter how you splice up the peformance over 4 quarters. Didn't say anything about Harden killing it for the season or that he has played at an MVP level for the season. Seriously, how many threads over past three years since we have gotten harden that he has gotten flamed the minute he lays an egg. The threads that call him out for having a bad game then are fair, right? Same way, I don't see any issue here and I have been pretty critical and frustrated of Harden. The thread is not knee jerk if its true. He had a great game. no need to make it more than it needs to be.
Good for James - honestly. At the end of the day though, he's going to have to score 40 every night to make the playoffs with the team defending as it does. That's not only on James and it's also not only on his teammates, or only on the coach. All of them have worked together to create this horrible defensive season, and they're going to have to team up to fix it.
Any game he takes more than 2 minutes of rest is proof that he's a fat, strip club-addicted, fame-seeking, coach-firing, Taco Bell-whoring, Fran Blinebury-intolerant weirdo. Someone should create a YouTube video of the 2 minutes Harden spent on the bench last night. It could totally go viral. It would also only take 2 minutes to watch. Dude's highlight reel from last night would literally take longer to watch than his time on the bench reel.
i am not a fan of knee jerk reactions. but it's inevitable for we sports fans. myself have been there b4. so this thread is ok with me, though i thought it should be part of the game thread. same to these threads knocking on harden. what i have a problem (sort of) with,,, is that some harden fans acting like their singing the praise (much of which is baseless) is more rational than those who had a knock on him (mainly for his lack of effort on d, which is a fact). to me it's like the left knee laughing at the right knee, to say the least.
There is nothing Harden can do to satisfy a lot of you. You're more invested in being right about your criticisms than in the team.
Harden was godly last night. First half - we all thought he was chucking. lmao back to back - guess he was getting his shot. Second half - JB realized not one person could guard him and sent him to work.
Harden was playing well off the ball yesterday too. This season might be toast but people need to get real if they think that we can do better than Harden in the short term. Harden is a legit star in this league; he might be maddeningly inconsistent on defense but you can build around a guy like James.
I think what I saw that I like here was . .. .we got the Full Monte The Step back The Drive The Post up The Three The hesitation move The Break The Assist The back door Cut The moving without the ball the Complete Harden The impossible to stop Harden Some of those I have not seen in a while or before Rocket River
what impressed me the most was that backdoor cut where he got the pass from smith. i was truly surprised.
Agree 100%. Yesterday we saw the Harden that carried us for most of last season, a thankless task. He's been good this year, but not otherworldly like last year. I'm hoping this is a sign of better times to come.
Guess what? That isn't Dwight anymore on a regular basis, even though he's getting paid to produce at a 20/10 level. He's gotten 20/10 a grand total of 11 times this year. I'm praying Sacto finally trades Cousins, because Morey will be waiting with open arms.
Ppl seriously take Harden for granted. He's had to play so much minutes since he joined the Rockets, he's bound to go down eventually. It could be next year when we miss on all the big named FAs in the off-season then we'll see how we end up being one of the worst teams in the league. I guess that would make the haters happy, seeing we'll finally tank and try to get a top 3 pick.
Dude last postseason he was 16.5 pts on 10 attempts, 14 boards, 2 1/2 blocks, 1 1/2 steals!!! With knee damage!!!(thx J Smoove) I am beyond okay with that. Don't even make me bring up is 13-14 playoffs averages. Dwight is very much still capable of being a force. I don't care if it's 18.3 pts - 12.2 boards. He is a double double machine. And not little double doubles. Substantial double doubles. Sure I'd love to have Boogie too. I mean what's more random right!? I'd also like to have a unicorn that farts skittles and turns into Anthony Davis whenever I scratch behind his ears. I'd suggest not holding your breath for Boogie coming over. I think Harden, with Howard agreeing to less, and luring in Durant (as long shot as that may be) is much more attainable than hoping for Boogie who still has 2 more years on his contract.
No matter what else happens with the team, I'd be cool as long as the team stayed committed to playing good defense. Even if the other team is just better and still scores, as long as the Rox, especially the best player on the team, still hustle on D, it is all good to me. Harden has a huge offensive burden and has put in the work to develop his talent to be able to carry that load, but I really think the load would lighten if some of that energy was expended on defense on a nightly basis. It wouldn't be so annoying to me if the man couldn't defend to save his life. But we know he can.
