You know we are not talking about that right? That is a completely different situation. That and staying in front of the ball handler is completely different. So how are some teams able to limit Harden and others are not? Some teams like the Pacers understand that you keep players like him out of the paint. If you let him drive willy nilly then the fouls are due. The NBA has always been more of a offensive game, the player that is more aggressive has ALWAYS been rewarded. Nothing has changed and nothing will change that.
Are you seriously denying that Harden didn't get a bunch of iffy calls tonight? I mean, it was great for me because I bet on the Rockets, but come on, these are calls most players don't get. I just saw Crawford get clobbered driving to the hoop and nothing... Harden gets that call all day.
What are you talking about that is his whole game? How can you throw yourself into the lane without first getting past the guy guarding you? He has handles and as good a first step as anyone in the NBA. He also is one of the best finishers in the NBA and a great PNR player. Saying that he just throws himself into the lane is not true at all. Also, Lebron gets fouls the VERY same way...by getting past his man and driving into the lane. It is no different.
He got a bunch of legit calls as well. There are many nights where he doesn't get the calls and he gets hammered as well. Still though he attacks the rim, pretty much if he's not passing or shooting the three he's attacking the rim. It's not even that hard to stop (in theory) you keep him from driving into the paint which is the point of perimeter defense in the first place. I think the whole thing about him just going into the paint not looking to score is BS. He gets and 1 plays nearly every game and if he's driving it is usually to go in for a easy two. It just so happens that he's a very shifty and crafty player.
It's vry hard to stop when the refs award very minimal contact initiated by the driving player, which is Harden's specialty. It's garbage basketball (just as bad as flopping to exagerrate minimal contact) and I wish the league would do something about it. Harden is just one of many players that exploit this, but he does it as much as anyone.
It's not garbage basketball at all, all he's doing is driving into the lane trying to get a layup. We act like he's not even attacking the rim, like he goes into the paint looks for someone to hit...and if no one hits him he passes it off. What happens is if no one bodies him he then instead gets two points off of a easy layup. Yeah he baits fouls...by holding his arms out in front of him. If it was so easily exploitable then more players should be getting to the line like Durant and Harden do...but they don't.
Come on, half the fouls tonite were incidental contact. Harden has a rep for drawing fouls and he gets more calls than most people. It's the same thing with Kobe and his "Heeeey" act. The NBA is so focused on stuff like flopping which has very little impact on the game that it is avoiding is much bigger problem of cheap fouls initiated by the offense. I have no problem with Harden driving the lane, but I think he shouldn't be getting a lot of these cheap calls. Just replay some of the calls from tonight (there were enough of them lol) and you should see a pattern.
Chris Paul is a huge flopper LOL. What's your point? You defend Paul but not Harden? They both are annoying players, yet you judge with homer glasses on. Troll!
You basically proved out point by admitting the NBA is an offensive game. They reward offensive players. Defensive player gets aggressive he won't last in the game.
Paul flops and I don't like it (although Griff actually flops more). What I'm saying is this has very little impact on the game. Maybe one call a game is changed by a flop... usually it's a ridiculous exagerration of an actual foul. But Harden, Durant and others generate a huge percentage of their offense by flailing, which is basically the same thing of exagerrating minimal contact (that they usually cause). This is far more impactful. It has nothing to do with whether the player is on the Clippers or another team. Corey Maggette was a HUGE offensive flailer and I couldn't stand his game either.
Doesn't matter if it is incidental or not though. If he's faced up a defender can not touch him, if he's in the air he can't be touched unless the player touching him is just jumping straight up and down with his hands up and standing his ground. There was a lot of swiping going on when he was driving. I have no idea how many times he went to the line legitly or not...I do know for a fact that if they Grizzlies could have stayed in front of him they could have prevented it regardless though.
Well he went to the line 25 times. All I'm saying is i'm not sure how many of those exactly were on touch calls and how many were legit calls. Because any ways, I'm not saying that "Oh yeah, 20 of those were legit." all I'm saying is it could be prevented by good defense.
