James Harden scored 40 points and dished 14 assists in the Rockets’ win over the Raptors yesterday.
But let’s nitpick his defense.
This is so, so, so bad.
In the final minutes of a two-point game (again, competitive because of his offense), he barely makes any effort as DeMar DeRozan drives by him. At least Harden briefly took his hands off his knees, I guess.
Harden might need to save most of his energy for offense, so some of these critiques are unfair. But we saw him play well enough on both ends just last season. What happened?
And maybe he wouldn’t have to work as hard offensively if he didn’t have to overcome his own awful defense.
