LAST PLAY Harden missed Terrance Jones for the easy layup

I'll trust Harden in the clutch every time.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...istically-clutch-nba-player-at-every-position

 

1) I pointed this out last night in the fire McHale thread and also another one.
2) Whether or not it would have been a turnover isn't the point. The point is Harden didn't see him. That's all. I argue that if he saw the play develop, he would have made the pass and I think it would have been a dunk. Harden makes harder passes through smaller windows all the time. Is it possible there would have been a turnover from Terrance "Hands of Stone" Jones? Sure, but the play was there. He had 2 steps on Green on the fast break. From the post game interview, Harden said, he was just putting his head down to drive and when he looked up, the open man he saw was the trailer. He didn't even know it was Dwight. He thought it might have been a shooter. He also thought there were 5 seconds left instead of 2. Anyhow, I ain't mad either. Harden carried the Rockets the entire game. He just missed seeing a window. That happens all the time. And there's a legit chance that pass would have resulted in a TO, but there's also a great chance that play would have been the game winning dunk-and-1.
3) It was just an unfortunate development on the fast break. If Harden would have crossed over right, Trevor would have been able to sprint to the left corner for the open shot. Harden took his double team left, so it brought the 2nd defender to Trevor. Oh well. I loved the effort. Bring it again and clean some things up like McHale, Harden, and Howard said in the post-game and they got a great chance to secure the next two.

 

It's never an "easy layup" when Jones is involved, it was just as likely, if not more likley that Jones would end up either missing it or simply getting blocked.

 

Even if he saw the tiny window, it would have to have been a bounce pass, and if I had a nickel for every time TJones dropped a bounce pass in the last month I'd have enough to park for 2 hours.

Second, Draymond Green who is excellent at taking charges and a defensive beast in general is lurking right behind TJ. Uncontested dunk only happens if he gambles for a wild steal or something.

 

This...end of story.

(Plus they fouled the crap out of Harden on that last play...but)

 

More then likely with our luck, even if Harden had got the pass off the. jones would fumble it and lose the ball

 

Again, a lot things that could have happened didn't happen, and you live with it. The whole point of the fast break no-timeout call was that they could get the ball to Harden and have him make a fast-break play (shot or pass).

Fast break option #1) Harden takes it to the basket - negated by the double team
Fast break option #2) Harder finds the corner 3 - right corner was covered, and unfortunately, Harden's move to the left brought his double team towards Ariza who was running to the left corner, so there was a spacing problem
Fast break option #3) A big beating his man down court. From the post game interview, the BIGGEST reason McHale didn't call timeout was because he saw 1 GS defender fall down (that was Barnes) and 1 GS defender stumble out of bounds (Green). So that created an advantage opportunity and Harden leading the fast break. Barnes' man was Ariza, and that didn't work out (in option #2), but Green's man was TJ and TJ beat Green down the court sprinting, so it was there.

Look, if you're not going to make the open fast break play, then freakin call a timeout. The whole point of not calling a timeout was to hope for a quality play like that to be available. Again, I totally accept the potential of turnover there, and detractors have to understand that Harden didn't see him. That's all. Harden makes that pass all the time if he would have seen him. The first thing Harden saw after getting stopped on the drive by the double was

Fast break option #4) Trailer 3 pt shooter. Unfortunately, it was Dwight Howard, and again, Harden didn't know it was Dwight.

Things happened fast, and stuff gets missed...it's part of hoops. But for all the Green lovers saying he would have stopped anything...what's the point of passing to his man then? Harden passes to TJ all the time (and yes, I'm well aware that TJ messes up half the time). But the whole point of the break by McHale was that Green was stumbling out of bounds, so he hoped there would be an advantage, and there was. TJ sprinted down and had the advantage.

 

Howard should drive and attack the basket.

 

Harden didn't blow the play. It was unfortunate but by no means his fault.

Harden didn't see Jones until he was mid-crossover. He couldn't have recovered the dribble and passed in time to hit Jones.

You could argue that Harden should have have been looking towards Jones earlier... I think he was trying to drive to the right and Thompson forced him to dribble back towards the left which made him lose sight of the potential play.

 

...on Green.

...But not on Iguodala who was right there under the basket ready to come over. (note I initially wrote Green above, turns out it was Iguodala).

Had the tiny window-bounce pass to Jones been successful, the proper play is then for Jones to catch, gather, & whip it to Brewer for the dunk.

Not a high percentage of success.

 

And I agree that I don't think it was a blown pass; it's just one of the many things that could happened to get a shot off. It's not like Golden State played perfect defense there and it's not like no matter what was transpiring, it's fatalistic and the only things that could have happened was Harden turning it over.

Anyhow, the Rockets made many mistakes on inbound plays and rotating off of Steph Curry for half of his points. That's the film that will be played over and over again during review sessions. This fast break stands out only because it was the last play of the game. I'm confident if this scenario occurs again, Harden and the Rockets will doing something different.

 

Yao at Howard's position would have made that 3.

 

Yeah I saw that,but that was just one of those things..

 

I highly doubt Brewer would have been able to dunk that pass from Jones.... Green would have switched onto Brewer and blocked/fouled/make him hesitate (with pump fake) thus making the time expire.

 

Should have called timeout and reset the offense for final play.

 

I love the #Rockets but this was my first thought. TJ has missed many layups.

 

He did shoot 100% vs. Golden State from 3.

 

And he would have been fouled and we would have heart attack watching Dwight shooting do-or-die FTs.

 

I would rather have it in Harden's hand with the game on the line. It just so happens he was double teamed and bad things happened. We have to have a short memory. Despite what many may have thought, this team and players have shown A LOT of heart and mental toughness in these playoffs. No matter what happens, Harden has put himself into that upper echelon of a player; and he is very young. He is just getting started.

 

How about a give & go from Howard? Nope, Howard was ball watching.