A degree guard’s job is to make his teammates’ pictures simpler. James Harden has spent his profession doing this. He has received an MVP, led the NBA in assists and earned some huge cash for lots of teammates by his outstanding passing. For components of this season, that playmaking acumen has helped the Clippers play like a real championship contender. On Wednesday, nonetheless, Harden took the other method.
Reasonably than giving Kawhi Leonard a simple 3-point try from the nook, Harden went out of his strategy to make the look more durable. With the Clippers main the Path Blazers 81-60, Harden handed the ball to Leonard and determined to comply with that move to the nook and throw up an arm seemingly in an try and contest the very shot he’d created. Leonard, both as a consequence of Harden’s odd alternative or random taking pictures variance, missed the look.
Harden tried to clarify the choice after the Clippers’ 116-103 victory in Portland. “I used to be attempting to convey some pleasure to this staff,” Harden mentioned. “I feel these previous couple of weeks have been a fog for us. I feel each staff goes by it. So I feel it was simply me attempting to create power, create an incredible vibe for this staff. Possibly it could’ve been higher if he had made the shot, however give them one thing to chuckle about, some pleasure.”
The Clippers definitely wanted some form of vibe shift. They entered Wednesday’s sport at 8-10 of their previous 18 video games. After wanting like a potential No. 1 seed within the Western Convention by December and January, they’re now at risk of slipping all the way in which to fifth. Nonetheless, on the uncommon events we have seen performs like this, they’ve come from groups with a bit extra respiration room.
In 2019, for example, LeBron James jokingly tried to dam a layup from teammate Rajon Rondo. There have been just a few key variations in that play. First, because it was a layup, James might be fairly sure that he would not take Rondo’s factors off of the board. Second, James was jokingly retaliating as a result of Rondo had faked a lob move to him on that very play. Third, and maybe most significantly, the Lakers had been 23-3 when this occurred.
In a 21-point sport towards one of many worst groups within the NBA, a single second like this is not more likely to change an end result. Harden himself mentioned after the sport that he acquired the enjoyable second for his teammates that he was searching for. However a 21-point lead is hardly safe within the fashionable NBA. Lower than a month in the past, the Clippers blew a 21-point result in the Lakers and misplaced a sport they need to have simply received. If there is a time and place for trying to dam your individual teammate, it in all probability is not in the midst of the third quarter in a sport that’s nonetheless conceivably losable, particularly for a staff that is not enjoying its finest basketball for the time being.