Throughout his career, James Harden hasn’t been known for being a fine defender. In fact, it’s the complete opposite, with opposite teams taking advantage of that situation. The Beard has been so famous for his laziness when defending, that even Giannis Antetokounmpo revealed that was the strategy his team used at the All-Star Game, to attack Harden.
Harden has quietly become a good post defender now, more knowing the fact that he’s part of the Houston Rockets’ small-ball lineup experiment that features 6’6 PJ Tucker as the starting center.
“You can’t try to play matchup basketball,” a Western Conference head coach told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “That’s what they want. You have to beat them with (ball) movement.”
The 2018 NBA MVP has even dared his opponents to come at him and test his defense.
“Come try it,” said Harden, “and the s**t won’t work.”
“I’m a competitor. I’m a beast,” said Harden. “Whatever teams’ schemes are, we switch everything, and they’ve got to find a way to attack us. It’s not going to be perfect. Some guys are going to score on me. That’s a part of the game, but more times than not, we’re going to get a stop and they’ll shy away from it.”
It looks like teams are starting to see what is the way to beat these Rockets. They had a six-win streak before the New York Knicks shocked everybody and defeated them on Monday night. That happened before Kawhi Leonard and company dismantled the Rockets once again on Thursday night, dominating them by a 120-105 score.
Yes, Harden has improved his defensive game, but now the Rockets have a bigger concern. Playing without a legit center seemed like a very good idea during the first days. Now that they were outrebounded by the Knicks and dominated in the paint by the Clippers, the picture looks completely different for Houston.
