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The Rockets lost on the shabby Wizards road Monday night, in overtime, by a score of 135-131. James Harden has been great, to his style, James Hardenian, but the team around him especially fears, and the Rockets again have absolutely no form of reliable attack beyond the cleansing and hope Harden can make enough incredibly hard buckets to support the day. .
Harden had 54 points in the match and finished two rebounds from a classic double triple. But he also had 11 turnovers and the Houston attack was completely screwed at the end of the fourth quarter and overtime, allowing botched and ill-trained wizards to get lost behind a rare sequence of consecutive defensive stops. Eight of Harden's 13 assists were recorded in the first quarter, when the Wizards were lazy and defensive, but also when they defended Harden on screens by pushing vaguely toward the hurdle and hoping to corrode Harden in space located between the screens. defender and his own defender recovering. It was stupid even before being half-assed, and Harden made it a hearty meal, reading help and throwing a decisive pass and lob passes for easy help.
The Wizards adjusted in a predictable way, starting in the second quarter, by switching more easily on the screens. Harden responded by increasing his throwing output and scoring 33 points in the middle of the quarter-finals. Watch him grill Markieff Morris at 3:05 of the video above. watch him run to a screen and go down to another bucket at 3:27; Watch the Rockets engineer pick Tomas Satoransky at 3:36, for a clutch bucket. The Wizards tried to start part of the Spurs defense in the third quarter, but Harden was already cooking and the Rockets were still able to isolate Harden against Satoransky and Jeff Green for two more signatures. steps back towards the end of the third.
But as the game unfolded and all the Rockets could invent a sequence of Harden dribbling or a big screen screen after another, even the disorganized and demoralized Wizards had to find the right approach. In fact, it was quite simple: the Rockets sent a large amount to install a screen, and the big defender covered himself, but aggressively and at the height of the evaluator's head. This has the effect of preventing Harden from getting around the screen properly and allowing Harden's defender to flow tightly around the screen and recover before Harden can penetrate the defense. It's basically the trap, but there is absolutely no magic. This is a defense that the Warriors, for example, absolutely murder by hitting the sifter on court-rolled – a clear pass where the fat player catches the ball over the free throw line but behind the two defenders involved in the action … and allowing him to do the next game, with a man advantage against an interfering defense. It is no exaggeration to say that this is exactly what allowed Draymond Green's defense excellence for Golden State.
But Rockets miss two things. They do not have a green screen that is as reliable to play the next game, whether it's a tight dribble and a finish at the rim or a quick pass for a shooter open on the perimeter. But more importantly, what they lack is a real offensive plan, beyond obtaining a favorable relationship between James Harden and the perimeter of another isolation bucket. Once the Wizards have started making the screen a useless exercise, it is up to Harden to create his offense exclusively against reasonable-minded defenders. Monday night, this proposal was losing. It was probably because Harden played 47 minutes of grueling basketball, that he had to face a fault that, apart from his brilliance and Eric Gordon's heroic night, had absolutely nothing to do. But it's also a predictable consequence of reducing your attack to James Harden, which probably explains in part why the Rockets went from first to ninth in last season's offensive standings this season. It's not like the league will never catch up!
The Rockets lost five points and two minutes in overtime, the ball in Harden's hands and the shot clock decreasing, while Bradley Beal defended. Beal was dramatically playing Harden's left hand, probably on the idea that if Harden could not create a wrong direction, he would not be able to comfortably return to his right for a high jump. This is a bet, and Harden beats him all the time, but here he had already tried to pass the ball once in possession of the ball, and he clearly did not think that he could reach his left hand. to unbalance Beal or drive. the cutting. Missing a better idea, Harden did this:
Two possessions later, after Harden hit a three clutch against a disorganized Wizards defense, Wall played Harden's left hand too much on the wing, pushed him into an attack to his right and took slipped in front of him to shoot an offensive foul. And that was the baseball game. The combination of a shortage of secondary playmakers, an exhausted offensive engine and an offensive that does not do anything half as well as it blocks the hell of James Harden's road left the Rockets without respite for a simple defensive adjustment. Overplay Harden's left hand, and obstructs his way around the screens. As a fan of Wizards, I found it delicious. As a basketball fan, it was shocking to realize how much these Rockets needed Harden to take advantage of many ridiculously difficult looks, and against a growing escalation, as teams Opponents had at least 48 minutes and nearly 100 possessions refine their defensive approach.
The Rockets are back below .500 this year and have now lost three in a row against relatively unimpressed Eastern Conference teams. Chris Paul and James Harden missed seven of 19 games played in Houston. It is of course much easier when they are together on the ground. But it will never be prettier. This proves how much their individual talent is impressive: the offense at a Houston tour works as often as it happens, but the inconvenience of creating a late, late offense of isolation. a possession and one hundred percent is almost always the case. In a situation of delay, a possession situation, the other team had plenty of time to understand how to defend it.
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