A lot of people are questioning Harden’s lack of involvement in the fourth quarter when he returned to the game. Here are the Rockets possessions in that period with him on the floor: Paul missed 3 Harden made floater Shot clock violation Shumpert made 3 Harden missed 3, Paul rebound and Assist to Shumpert layup Shumpert missed 3 Harden turnover Gordon made 3 Paul made free throws (1/2) Gordon made 3 Tucker missed layup Paul turnover offensive foul Tucker turnover out of bounds Paul made free throws (2/2) Capela made alley oop dunk Paul missed layup Gordon made free throws (2/2) Capela made dunk Harden made layup 19 possessions. 22 points (not including technical made by Harden). That’s not bad. Of course, we got a boost from Draymond exiting the game. But I don’t think we lost in the fourth because Harden was too passive. He could have been in the center of every one of those possessions, scoring or assisting in every basket, and if he got us to 22 points over 19 possessions we’d say “job well done”. The issue was on the defensive end. That’s the end we need to be focusing on heading into game 6 and then game 7.
Totally agree that we lost the game in 4th qtr at defensive end. It's as if we didn't know how to defend when Curry is super aggressive. Curry was able to penetrate, get calls, and shoot 3s. It didn't help that we continue to play Capela and Curry continued to take advantage of the matchup on switch.
It's actually 25 including the technical. Prior to Harden going out for a break he made another basket so that accounts for all 27 in the 4th. I agree I don't think Harden was too passive, I think the team was too passive and probably tired to start the quarter. For almost 3 minutes there was a whole lot of nothing and then the scoring began on both sides. That was the time to go inside every time and get easy baskets/create foul trouble. At the end we scored every time but that series where the took away the three from Tucker was part of 3 possessions and then you have the late bad call of Klay out of bounds that were the difference in the game. I don't blame our pace of ISO as a culprit because we do that to conserve energy frankly after coming back from being down 20. It's our D that broke down and the bad rebounding. Through 3Q that game was on lockdown and then once KD went out we did not adjust well to movement. Capela may not have adjusted well but we only used him properly at the very end of the game and it was effective. If he started next game with the same sets I think you see him return to being more effective by getting his lobs. The timeout after KD was out should have really shifted the Rockets back to their normal gameplan vs every other team but they were stuck in that frenetic smallball lineup. There were more busted plays and open 3s. The ESPN stats on rebounding don't look correct but the game really did come down to two plays with everything else pretty evenly matched. This was a wasted opportunity and no surprise what could go wrong against us did. I think the problem we have is that the team had 17 TOs with essentially 5 in the 4th. I am not sure the Tucker 3 was out of bounds. I know they will call it because his heel hovered over the line but I don't know if it ever hit. I have seen it many times in the past that way. RE: Capela on Curry. I definitely do not want to see it and liked the switch with Tuck but I think we are going to have to live with some of those shots. We could coach him up on those because he is too passive and it lets Curry get comfortable. Capela hunkers down in front of him even though he is 5 feet behind the line. I would rather see Curry blow past Capela because I know he won't do it because of ego. For that reason Capela should stay tall and actually jump straight up with both of his arms in the air in his line of shot to alter the arc. In fact the whole time Capela is on Curry his arms should go up in the air. It will disrupt Curry. Curry gets to his side and pushes the ball like a flick. This would disrupt his shot. While not an effective D against other guards that will drive, Curry would get undone by this. Even if Capela jumps slightly early and Curry is able to do a fake he still has to reset. When Capela is on him Capela rightly stays back to avoid the foul but he stays back and low and that is why Curry is so at ease with his quick release. Curry's advantage is speed, Capela's is height, use it more effectively. Overall, the next two games need to be about gameplanning Capela back into the offense with lobs. I believe they are going to have to play Looney 35 min and become more predictable. It's a more traditional game now.
Expectation for him is high - he needs to be the best player on the court in the final minutes. The rest of Rockets simply don't have enough talents to seal a game like this (sorry CP3)
Ow he was involved and with emotions out of the way I think most people will see it was not as bad as it seems, but there’s still still two clear issues even if it’s fair or not: 1. He did not take a shot. For someone who kept jacking them up in game 4 and how well he was shooting, there’s no way he should not get a shot up. Especially because he’s our leader and MVP candidate. It was Tracy McGrady like the way he just didn’t even look for his shot. It’s like he just wasn’t ready. 2. Body language. Multiple possessions he took himself out of the play and while others might also have been gassed / tired, you are the MVP and leader. Champions and MVPs rarely play like that in a crucial game. It’s nothing new, but it comes with the territory so don’t care if it’s fair. He deserves the criticism. Not that he lost us the game, but definitely that he failed to put the team on his back.
If you can’t rely on your MVP to take over in a game where his supporting cast is horrendous and the other team’s best player gets injured (and their best defender fouls out w 2-3 mins left), exactly when can you rely on him? Harden just had one of the greatest offensive seasons in league history but somehow we should shrug off a two-shot 4th quarter in a game that would’ve allowed us to finally defeat our arch rivals at home??? I swear we have to have this exact conversation about Harden every postseason and every year people find ways to excuse his disappearance. I get that it’s a reality no one wants to face but we’re facing it whether you admit or not. MVP’s don’t settle in these situations.
This has become his MO. The first couple times, say what you will, but now it’s become a habit. Time after time... I can’t believe he was 10-16, that’s it? Like I don’t care if you’re forcing it (which he often does anyway), you need to be taking 25 shots last night.
Yeah I'm not happy with his assertiveness. For ever possession in the 4th, he should have been attacking Draymond. I know he did it twice but he missed both those 3's because he was fishing for fouls again. He should have just kept driving at him with the intention to score inside. Rare for me to be critical of Harden, but that was crunch time. Not interested in a slightly better matchup at that time, I want Harden creating or attacking early in the clock over and over again.
"Tucker missed layup Paul turnover offensive foul Tucker turnover out of bounds" These killed us basically. We couldn't grab a damn a rebound on the other end. How can anyone blame Harden, he almost played the whole game and basically made plays the entire game. Course he's gonna be gassed and look for his "star pg" to contribute
Harden is not to blame. There is not one singular individual that can be blamed for this loss. It's exactly what KD said after game three, they made more threes than us and they out rebounded us, that's why we lost. This team has got to start putting some complete games together, if they played with the tenacity they had in the third for the entire game tomorrow night is a close out game in our favor because both teams were dead even in scoring in the second half. Now with KD down, they have to attack Draymond to get him in foul trouble, continue to make Steph work on defense and get ****ing offensive rebounds.Check the stat sheet, the outcomes of these games has been determined by whoever gets the most rebounds. The warriors have out-rebounded the rockets three times = 3-2. The door is wide open for these guys
Dude he's exhausted. You guys act like he has no right to feel fatigue. Those guys are human, it took a lot out of them to overcome that deficit. They kept fighting but without their legs it was very sloppy. Cut Harden come slack, he's playing heavy minutes and is drawing the full attention of the warriors defense
We lost this game on defense and rebounding not offensively. But regardless they were doubling Harden and zoning the passing lanes. The right move in this situation was to let CP3 run the offense. That’s exactly what he was signed for. Sadly he’s washed atp.
Our whole offense centers on exploiting matchups. Harden (when he had the ball) in the 4th was guarded by Iggy or Draymond, and the second a pick was set the double team came. Meanwhile, CP3 had multiple times that Looney got stuck on him and Gordon had the infinitely beatable Curry on him. CP3 and Gordon initiating things in those situations was absolutely the right move. We lost this game because sometimes the ball bounces the wrong way. We lost because Looney lucked into perfect positioning multiple times down the stretch. We lost because the out of bounds on us wasn't missed and the out of bounds on them was missed. We lost because the Warriors hit some big shots. Harden is going to get killed in the media today and if he hadn't been great we would have lost by 30. It sucks.
After seeing Nick Wright break down each possession, I don’t think he sent ghost or choked anymore, but we did blow a big opportunity collectively.
He got repeatedly roasted defensively in the 4th. Given that he chose to not participate on offense in the 4th, you’d like to see him at least contribute elsewhere.
