[Highlights] All the times James Harden was hunted on defense in the 4th quarter and overtime of game 1 vs. the New York Knicks.
Including replays of some.
up 22 points and the coach doesn’t make defensive subs LOL
Harden literally looks like Brunson’s playing 2K on the lowest difficulty and just blowing by the defense every play…š¤¦āāļø
On most of these plays Iād say he defended alright. Brunson was just on a heater
Pretty much anytime Brunson just made a simple move and went for it he blew by Harden. The times where Harden stayed with him he was playing with the ball more than he had to.
Nah he let Brunson touch paint super easy and collapse entire defense.
It wasnt even like Harden was playing great on offense to offset it. Atkinson basically watched Harden get cooked for 12 minutes losing a 22 point lead and thought “well be good”.
Insane choke job by the Cav’s joke.
Brown also coached a bad game as well. There is zero reason Shamet should play so little. His defence and shooting is LEGIT.
Brown took too long to put Mitch in.. and then leaves Mitch in tooo long during the hack a mitch moments.
Both coaches were very very bad this game.
The first few minutes I wouldn’t call bad defence, was contesting most shots. Fatigue and effort surely a factor towards the end there because he was betting blown by every time.
Yeah Brunson was just hot but then he got gassed and it got ugly at the worst possible time.
I kind of agree, actually… he actually forced Brunson wide but Brunson just hit some tough shots off the glass. Towards the end was brutal cos they tried doubling Brunson but Harden just couldn’t rotate to the open shooter once Knicks got the passing game going.
plus he’s an important offensive player, no use getting in could trouble with lazy hands
Yeah, Brunson in postgame said the whole flow of the game was based on rest and fatigue. For a while, the Knicks had too much rest and were rusty, but at the end they still had energy and the Cavs were gassed.
Is it because of LeBron that no one seems to acknowledge that Harden is 36 years old? If he wasn’t great at defense before, obviously he will be a liability at this age. One thing is for sure, if Wemby was Harden’s help defender, those plays would look a LOT different.
Like you said, 36 years old AND just had two series of 7 games in the playoffs. He had no rest. The Knicks are fresh, they rolled on the 76ers.
Thereās always an excuse for this guy. Before it was, āoh, he has too much of an offensive load and heās too gassed by the end to play defense or make clutch playsā now itās oh heās 36 years old. He has a DPOY behind him and another good shot blocker in Allen, he has Mitchell to carry the offense, idk what else he wants. If itās not dribble dribble dribble for 20 seconds then step back 3, not much else he brings.
It’s not an excuse, it’s biology. Even Lebron would be gassed after that many games without rest. I don’t care that it’s Harden or any other name, ANY 36 old player still fresh in those conditions would be a unicorn. It’s just basics and anyone knowing sports would know this.
Crazy he has no teammates to come in and provide some relief. If heās so gassed, he should sit his ass down.
U fail high school biology or what
You fail elementary grammar or what?
My guy, he has a DPOY in Mobley behind him. Plus, EVERYONES defense would look A LOT different with Wemby behind them lol!
Of course they would, but my point is I saw little to no help. Mobley did not help in a single one of those clips, with the exception of stepping out on OG and getting blown by, leaving Harden to get posterized under the rim.
Yes, him being 36 during the Lakers chip has destroyed the casual fanās average expectation of a HOFāer at the same age range. Durant, Harden, George etc., being beholden to their peak standards the last few years have led to absurd commentary
What is interesting from watching the clips is that he’s clearly trying when his man is in front of him, but once he gets beat, he stops. There’s almost always a little pause after his man clears him that makes it look really bad. Happened about a half dozen times in these clips.
If only they more timeouts to give the old man a breather here and there.
Huh? He goes right by Harden like 4 out of the first 5 drives? The only one that Harden did anything was when he was able to block him but even that was a bad gamble.
What lol he was getting beat in the first few minutes as well
Literally the 2nd clip after the steal on KAT is Harden just turning and letting Brunson just run by. Like he was a door
Was a great gameplan. Made even better by Atkinson’s allergy to calling timeouts.
Yup him not calling time out, James harden always being the main defender somehow, and no Donovan Mitchell plays drawn out. Love the nba.
Yeah, I think the offensive gameplan was equally as egregious during this run. The Cavs made zero baskets in 4 mins as the the Knicks cut it from 22 to 5.
It looked like they wanted Harden on Brunson, even though he was getting cooked. Look at the possession starting at 0:44, Bridges doesnāt even set a screen, he just wanders over to Wade and they switch it with absolutely no resistance.
Some Bears fans got Vietnam flashbacks to the Eberflus era
Damn I wanted him to succeed this postseason but watching brunson work his magic from 22 points down….can’t do anything but say fair enough
Some good defense, some bad defense, and some really bad defense
It was bbq chicken when the Knicks hunted Brunson/OG PnR’s vs. Harden/Merrill
Elite Shotmaking.
Yeah a lot of these werenāt bad defense just making tough shots
Nah dude, Harden was an absolute traffic cone, hell I could score on him.Ā
the one that pissed me off is not even raising his hands to close out shamet with 40 seconds to go. clearly gassed and just stopped trying at that point.
That one was almost certainly a fuck up by Mitchell.
Harden sucked but this loss is almost 100% coaching. There are plenty of players who would get hunted and completely destroyed by someone like brunson. It’s the coach’s job to help his players in that situation.
If the coaching staff uses James harden like he’s peak Kawhi, it’s not really on him when he fails miserably
yeah, and that turnover Strus had was partly Harden’s fault for not hustling cross half court, allowing his defender to leave him to get the steal.
Idk, that actually looked like good defense and good tough shot making. Even if they hunted him, he did well
why are they switchingso easily, when the screen werent even all that great instead of fighting over the screen. lmao
modern nba and bad defenses
Never compare this dude to Dwyane Wade again smh
Ha come on man. You’re right, but I wouldn’t use Harden’s defense in the ECF at age 36 as the reason. Wade wasn’t exactly a lockdown defender at age 36 either.
For sure but I have a narrative to push
At what age was Harden a lock down defender
Never, but thatās not what I was implying. Iām just saying age 36 Wade would be getting cooked by Brunson too.
Harden was a lockdown post defender ‘18-21 imo
When he locked in he was elite at defending the post
He just gets smoked by guards on the perimeter.
Rockets in ‘18 had it right by playing switches w their faster forwards/wings that could defend guards
Come on now. Wade was still a much better defender at age 36.
Dwayne wade at age 36 averaged 11pts lol
I mean this series shouldnāt move the needle at all either way lol. Wade was a bench player scoring 10-11 per game at this point in his career.
The problem is that Harden is only good at defending in the post. His off ball defense is equally as bad as his on ball defense. So unless he’s guarding the other team’s center he’s kind of useless and even then he ain’t some rim protector either. Towns is kind of a decent matchup for him considering he wants to pop, post up or drive hard with the right hand. Harden can at least guard the pop and post up.
He does have really good hands and a high IQ defensively. But heās also lazy and petulant and unathletic.
Bro isn’t just washed he’s ready for the donate bin
That would make sense if he use to be a good defender, this is just who he is
Half of these would be indistinguishable from clips from 2017
This was mostly pretty good defense, especially on KAT. It was a mistake to not double Brunson because he was just on an insane heater.
Didn’t watch the game but judging by reddit comments, harden was sipping on a cold lemonade just chilling watching new york play 4⁄5 the whole time. I’m one of the biggest harden haters there is but this was not hardens fault, its the coaches fault for leaving in someone who isn’t a good defender. Harden was actually hustling and got a few stops too.
Brutal
Pretty much just ends up being every single scoring possession for the Knicks in the 4th
Who is going to do better against Brunson? Merrill? Mitchell?
It wasn’t as bad as it initially seemed in terms of effort.
That thing he does where he lets the player go past him and then hopes to poke the ball out of his hands is so low percentage, I don’t know why he does it. He does this once here towards the end.
The shot at :52 is just insane
The other side of this is the Cavs offense. They seems to take only 3 and actually a decent amount of them were wide open. I’d more interested in that breakdown
Calling zero time outs is wild
Iām struck by Harden’s almost dissociated presence on the floor. Usually, aging superstars compensate for declining athleticism with elite game management: talking to the coach, directing teammates, engaging refs, dictating the flow in some way. Harden, however, looks entirely passive. There is a fine line between playoff composure and apathy. Other stars are actively thinking through plays and commanding the floor and Harden just looks completely unbothered.
Definitely hasnāt point shaved his entire career. The guy addicted to throwing millions at the strip club is totally clean, nothing to see here.
This is like when your dbs are just gassed and out of it.
This was seriously the most baffling sequence if professional basketball I have ever seen. Harden barely moving out there and the Cavs just let him switch onto Brunson every fucking time with no help. No timeouts. No substitutions. No adjustments. Harden was trash, but he’s also 37 and completely gassed. The fact that they left him out there was inexcusable and it was hard to watch.
He uses his hands well and is smart but he cnt jump to contest and his lateral movement for a guard is ass
If the Cav’s want to play “Hack at Mitch”, we can play “Cross up Harden”
This is the type of defense that would send your ass to the bench. Coach is a fool for getting burned over and over again.
6 min video š
Harden is a fun pinata but it was the offensive collapse that lost the game. If they just put up Wizards offensive efficiency they win the game by 10. The only real mistake Harden made until NY took the lead was going for the charge on that OG dunk attempt where he took the foul.
He does what he does best. You canāt hate on that. 4 dudes saw this man get destroyed and didnāt help/switch! Then we saw Kenny hold onto to his TOs and whispered my precious.Ā
Iām about as big of a Harden hater as there is but he was actually playing alright defense (for him) on most of these.
But then thereās a bunch of plays where he just gives up, which is why heās always been a losing player on the biggest stages
Harden is not a good defender by any standard, but Brunson made some tough shots too. I can’t really blame it all on The Beard.
Harden has had some horrific defensive performances, this isn’t even top 10. Like, he wasn’t that bad in most of the clips, they were just hitting some ridiculous shots.
James seems to still have good lateral quickness but his vertical quickness is almost non-existent. Everyone is shooting over james knowing he cant block them
DAMN the vid is almost 6 minutesš¤£
The thing I find most pathetic about Harden is after every shot he just STANDS THERE. Watch the clips. Like the concept of a rebound just doesn’t even occur to him. The lack of effort is insane.
Anyone attacking Harden should understand that this level of iso on him should really not be happening. He should be the last one switching onto Brunson, and that’s just basic level ball.
Yeah, Harden sucks on defense. That shit is super obvious. So why did the Cavs let this happen literally all game, and most importantly, in the 4th quarter when their lead was dissapearing??
Atkinson needs to be investigated, all that run and still no timeout?
Whilst other team if they score 6 pts consecutively it will be an immediate timeout to defuse the momentum.
The cone meme is pretty cliche at this point but Brunson couldnt have gotten past an actual 6 foot 6 cone faster than he got past Harden on a lot of these drives.
Kevin mchale would never let this happen.
I hope this dude never wins a championship.
He’s the reason basketball is so painful to watch nowadays
Nobody tries to fight over screens anymore.
Are you joking? We must not be watching the same playoff series because that was constant in the Knicks 76ers series.
Nope I know what I’ve seen, especially in the 4th.
watch this 4th quarter when landry shamet gets subbed in how he guards mitchell ā thatās a man who loves to fight over a screen
Get your eyes checked then my guy
Get you eyes checked then my guy
Harden has never been a guy that cared about defense or worried on his defense in the off season. Thatās why itās laughable that the Cavs traded for him for his defense
His defense has actually been important for the Cavs the whole postseason, especially in the post against bigger wings. But yeah if you repeatedly leave a 36 year old with slow feet on an island against one of the best iso scorers in the league, itās not going to go well. This is a coaching problem
Am I crazy? The iso D was only super bad at the very end of the run, its not great but funneling towards the rim protectors isnt a crazy thing to allow to happen and hes got active hands.
The off ball D is much more consistently bad in this clip
No itās not horrible, Brunson made some great shots, but he does let him get to his spots pretty easily and has trouble staying in front of him. The off ball d is definitely a bigger issue but they also hunted him for a reason. Thereās only so much you can do against Brunson but they had to adjust with literally anything way sooner than they did
Yeah thats definitely fair, and I dont think theres any argument that if the Knicks wanted to get Brunson in an iso Harden is going to be the target.
It just seem weird how much attention Hardens defense specifically is getting in relation to this run, which admittedly theres way more lapses specifically off ball than can be allowed to happen for a player in a playoff game, than there is focus on to your point the lack of any sort of momentum break or adjustments or even focus on why they couldn’t just score enough on the opposite end.
Everyone has a massive hate boner for Harden and any failings on his part will dominate the discourse regardless of whatever else went wrong. This loss is 100% on coaching in my book. Itās inconceivable that a coach at any level would not use 1 of their 4 remaining timeouts during an 18-1 run, along with the countless other failures to make adjustments on both ends.
I mean, I get it, you want the best matchup. But, as the replays show, Harden did get some stops. I think the “hunting” is kind of overblown, its not like the Knicks have any other play than “iso ball with Brunson”, so not actually a lot of strategizing going on here guys.
Mike Brown literally said in the post game they specifically went after Harden.
The Knicks have literally run their offense through kat the last two series. You do not know ball.Ā
Way to expose yourself about not knowing ball