May 21, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Houston Rockets guard James Harden (13) moves to the basket against the defense of Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) and guard Klay Thompson (11) during the second half in game two of the Western Conference Finals of the NBA Playoffs. at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
By: Scott Horlbeck
Last night’s win was gigantic, as teams up 2-0 go on to win the series 95% of the time. And while Warriors fans everywhere are ecstatic to be up two games, I think it’s safe to say that James Harden has us all a little gun-shy. 38-10-9, on 13-21 shooting, 3-6 from three, and 9-10 from the line – Harden was in full Melisandre mode and almost single-handedly won game 2.
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Luckily for Warriors fan, he didn’t, thanks to a ballsy improvised double-team from Steph Curry and Klay Thompson on that last possession.
Curry was great all night, as was Andrew Bogut, who guarded the rim better than a Real Housewife guarding her husband and an afternoon pool party.
But instead of discussing the last play any longer, or how good Curry + Bogut where, or how embarrassing it was seeing Guy Fieri sitting court-side, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Harden has his 38 amigos.
Here’s an exchange I had with my Dad at halftime:
Dad: They better figure out how to stop Harden.
Me: They’re not going to.
Dad: They’re the best defensive team in the league and they can’t stop him???
Me: Dad no one just shuts down Harden.
Dad: Disappointing…
My dad’s a real optimist when it comes to the Warriors.
So how did the Warriors defend Harden on Thursday night? Did he get his 38 on defensive breakdowns and easy buckets? Or did the Warriors make him work?
The Not-so-good:
I’m sure you recognize this: high pick-and-roll with Harden and Terrence Jones. The Rockets killed Golden State all night with this PNR combo, particularly when Harden was forced to his right.
Forcing James Harden Right just allows him to hit Jones on that PNR
— Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) May 22, 2015
You can see Draymond Green, who’s guarding Jones in the PNR, sitting at the foul line playing free safety. This is the conservative approach to defending the PNR, meant for containing the ball-handler, rather than hedging, which leaves you vulnerable to the ball-handler turning the corner and having a 4 on 3 situation. Note: The Rockets scored most of their PNR points with Bogut off the floor, which makes sense as you see Festus Ezeli go for the block rather than go straight up like Bogut often does.
Here’s another example – the play just before in fact – this time with Harden going left, and hitting Jones with a pocket pass for an easy bucket. Jones makes a nice adjustment at the rim switching from left to right, but you’ll notice Ezeli going for the block again rather than using the verticality rule to his favor. Green sits at the foul line and is a step slow on the Harden pass to Jones.
This next play is an example of hedging the PNR. Just not in the good way.
Harden comes hard off Howard, splits the screen, and finishes with an uncontested dunk. This is the risk of hedging the screen, especially when it’s done this poorly. Howard does set a good screen on Thompson, stoning him and not allowing him to fight over it.
This last play is a good example of why you don’t go under the screen in a Harden PNR.
Howard sets a wide pick at the perfect angle, and Thompson is forced to go under the screen. When Harden sees that, he takes one dribble and buries the 3.
Good:
See, it wasn’t all bad. In this first play, Thompson fights over the Trevor Ariza screen and makes what was in my opinion one of the plays of the night.
Not only does Thompson do a great job of fighting over the screen, he does so without fouling, and is able to stay with Harden as he changes directions and darts to the hoop. The block is just the cherry on top.
Here’s another good example of Thompson fighting over the screen, and the huge advantage of having Bogut on the floor to defend the rim.
Thompson forces Harden left, where he’s met with the sagging Green and Bogut sliding across the key. This is textbook PNR defense, even though the block isn’t necessarily something you can rely on.
Even though Harden scores on the play below, Thompson plays good defense, slithers over the Howard screen and forces Harden to make an off-balance mid-range jumper.
It will be interesting to see how the Warriors defend the Harden PNR moving forward. It’s been written that Kerr prefers not to double anywhere on the court, so we probably won’t see any screen blitzing, but a hard hedge or match-up change allowing for a switch are two adjustments that I wouldn’t be surprised to see.
Even though Harden has been on fire from mid-range, these are the shots the Warriors would prefer him to take. Plus, it’s fun to think how upset Daryl Morey gets everytime he sees one of his guys pull-up inside the arc.