I do like how, after someone strolls by him for an easy basket, he raises his hand to say "my bad" . . . good self awareness.
you're misinterpreting what he's doing. He's not admitting guilt of taking ownership of his defense, he's saying "ok, my turn! give me the ball!"
It's that, and more. Harden is the best in the business at drawing fouls, bullshit and otherwise. You can't put arguably your most valuable asset, and certainly your most valuable guard, on the guy who, with the help of the refs, is going foul him out in 20 minutes.
Those clips are hilarious. I have to believe Harden will pick up his defensive focus in the playoffs. Plus the games are like three days apart, so he won't be tired. It's a matter of effort. Still, as maxie has pointed out, we need to get into our offense early and make them/him chase us around the court, and after 12-15 seconds of that, we'll have some good looks.
IF (big if) LMA plays in the post, and kicks out when doubled, then sure. But if LMA is going to play his bullshit pick/pop inefficient 18' jump shot game, then we need to use that as a decoy to set up a better shot going through Harden's man (Wes, most likely). Bottom line: if we run our offense through the LMA pick/pop we will lose.
I like Wes guarding Harden at the beginning. But if foul trouble occurs, I wonder how Claver would do guarding Harden. Claver is deceptively long, smart but maybe too slow footed to guard Harden. I could also see Claver giving Harden fits with his length and who cares if he piles up the fouls.
Lillard is better on the ball than in help defense/ team defense. Guarding Harden is a team effort because not even Nic can contain him fully. And if you put Nic on him it's a full time job and Parsons and Beverly will hurt us and we wouldn't have Nic coming for help on drives and Dame/Wes are not as good help defenders or at doubling and getting back to their man in time. If I'm the coach I at least give it a try. Dame gets 2 quick fouls or Harden completely burns him again and again and it doesn't seem like he is able to adjust - you move Nic or Wes on Harden. But if Dame is able to even just stay with him it would give us a great advantage.
So let's start the game with our main guard getting 2 quick fouls. That's so smart. I'm glad Stotts put Batum on him.
The problem with that strategy is the team feeds off the success of Harden and Howard. If they go off, it seems the team goes off and so does the fans. Possibly try that strategy when we are at home. I just wouldn't like to give the fans anything to cheer about. Last night was quiet. So quiet, you could hear a pin drop. You know your team is doing something right when that is happening.
Why I believe you do what you can to shut down Howard and Harden. Mainly Harden if I was to pick one. Howard is a late game nightmare for the coach. Also, Howard is notorious for buckling under pressure, while harden lives for it. If Portland can force Harden to chase Matthews or anyone guarding him around all game, he must play on both sides of the court. Tiring Harden is beneficial, IMO.
Harden kept signalling (waving his arms downward) the fans to be quiet, supposedly so that players could hear the coach and each other. The national announcers said that's why you could hear a pin drop.
Then you play your game to quiet the crowd without Houston to quiet down. If we want to be champions, this is how champions win. You must win on the road and take their crowd out of the entire series.
