Read on Twitter
In the video, which you can find here, I dig into Harden's iso tendencies:
HOU cares who is guarding him *and* where opposing rim protection is.
Let's look at some examples from tonight's game 7. I bet you'll be able to spot the trends. https://twitter.com/Tim_NBA/status/1301320355320127495
HOU cares who is guarding him *and* where opposing rim protection is.
Let's look at some examples from tonight's game 7. I bet you'll be able to spot the trends. https://twitter.com/Tim_NBA/status/1301320355320127495
I'll show these each in order, so you can also spot how the change in positioning by OKC has shifted Harden's tendencies and led to the dropoff we've seen to his scoring as this game has gone on.
Drive 1. Spot where the bigs are for OKC.
Drive 1. Spot where the bigs are for OKC.
This time, he settles for a jumper. Spot where the big are.
When he has bigs on-ball, at the top of the key, or strong side corner => Drive
When weak side corner/wing => Settles for jumper
It's not always the case, but it often is.
When he has bigs on-ball, at the top of the key, or strong side corner => Drive
When weak side corner/wing => Settles for jumper
It's not always the case, but it often is.
This time we see another drive. Spot the OKC bigs.
Drives are what Houston wants. This iso penetration is the Houston version of the Portland P&R, which was what led to the easy shots for Trent & Melo, and negating it led to poor offense and a huge drop in efficiency for them.
Drives are what Houston wants. This iso penetration is the Houston version of the Portland P&R, which was what led to the easy shots for Trent & Melo, and negating it led to poor offense and a huge drop in efficiency for them.
At this point, pause the clip and see if you can guess what'll happen based on that OKC positioning. I've been playing this game for the past 4 games of the series once I spotted this trend early in my prep work after logging hundreds of Harden isolations (including pass outs).
Noel weak side where he could recover => jumper
This time he got both bigs up at the top of the key. Of course he's going to drive.
And notice how on a lot of these, Harden is just contact seeking and throwing up prayers of shots. A lot of these drives appear almost pre-determined.
And notice how on a lot of these, Harden is just contact seeking and throwing up prayers of shots. A lot of these drives appear almost pre-determined.
Adams right under the rim? You bet he's going to settle for the jumper.
And again, this isn't 100%, but it's correct far more often than not. I'm not really cherry picking clips here.
And again, this isn't 100%, but it's correct far more often than not. I'm not really cherry picking clips here.
This time he went to take the jumper but wasn't able to get it off, but again, notice where the bigs are for OKC
Pause at 12 seconds for a quick quiz: what's he going to do?
Finally, after many jumpers in a row, we see a VERY forced drive here from Harden while bigs are in position.
The on-ball defense matters a lot too. Dort is doing really well, but I expect this to continue vs LA w/o a Dort caliber on-ball guy. This trend goes way beyond 1 series
The on-ball defense matters a lot too. Dort is doing really well, but I expect this to continue vs LA w/o a Dort caliber on-ball guy. This trend goes way beyond 1 series
Last one from Q1-3. I won't give away what'll happen.
But by looking at these I hope you can spot the trend, see it now in-game as you watch, and understand why 2-big lineups for OKC (and LA if HOU gets to R2) make it far harder to get the D organized how Harden wants.
But by looking at these I hope you can spot the trend, see it now in-game as you watch, and understand why 2-big lineups for OKC (and LA if HOU gets to R2) make it far harder to get the D organized how Harden wants.
And the tendencies to drive or not also correlate quite well to Houston's offense finding success or not, Harden scoring well or not, and Harden deciding to pass out and reset the offense or not (which I didn't really show with these but also follows this trend).
