A basketball clinic in Toronto, by James Harden

[Bruteque]

TOR just needs to get a little more out of Siakam and Westbrook next time, especially down the stretch.

[cupcakesnake]

2nd worst defensive rebounding team in the league runs into 3rd best offensive rebounding team in the league. 3 of Houstons starters grabbed at least 11 rebounds. Toronto didn't have a single-player grab double-digit rebounds. As a team Houston bludgeoned Toronto for 20 offensive boards. Capela had 9 by himself. Houston grabbed 37% of all available offensive boards!!!

Both teams played decent on offense. The rebounds are the story here.

[dacrusha]

Raptors have done a nice job of the forcing the ball out of the hands and shutting down stars like LBJ, Kawhi, Embiid and Lilliard this year to largely favorable results.

Raptors had to pick their poison: contain James Harden or risk a career game from Ben McLemore.

[Bruteque]

2nd worst defensive rebounding team in the league runs into 3rd best offensive rebounding team in the league. 3 of Houstons starters grabbed at least 11 rebounds. Toronto didn't have a single-player grab double-digit rebounds. As a team Houston bludgeoned Toronto for 20 offensive boards. Capela had 9 by himself. Houston grabbed 37% of all available offensive boards!!!

Both teams played decent on offense. The rebounds are the story here.

They doubled a player 35 feet from the basket all game. Giving up a bunch of offensive boards there was par for the course of that Nurse poison variety. If they didn't give up a bunch of them, then that would have been the twist in the story.

[JN61]

i just think its a hyperbolic statement

"Most gravity I have ever seen"

I have never seen a player consistently double teamed 40 feet from the hoop for an entire game.

The images you showed are Curry in or near the paint.


Sent from my SM-G960U using RealGM mobile app

that's exactly my point, teams have been trapping Curry as soon as he crosses half court the last 6 years, where have you been?

Can you show actual video evidence of it happening on nightly basis?

[clyde21]

"Most gravity I have ever seen"

I have never seen a player consistently double teamed 40 feet from the hoop for an entire game.

The images you showed are Curry in or near the paint.


Sent from my SM-G960U using RealGM mobile app

that's exactly my point, teams have been trapping Curry as soon as he crosses half court the last 6 years, where have you been?

Can you show actual video evidence of it happening on nightly basis?

pull up any game from the playoffs the last 6 years, literally any game. pick one randomly.

[BallerTalk]

That's why I said in game thread Rockets should be thankful that Nurse showed them how to play (unintentionally of course) if Harden would want his team to succed he should play much less selfish and include his team mates )RW excluded here for obvious reason )

You're a little bit out of your depth here. This is far from the first time teams have tried this with Harden.

In fact Atlanta did the exact same thing just two games ago. The difference was, once guys like McLemore (who finished with 24 points) Tucker, and Rivers started knocking down shots on the Hawks and built a double digit lead, Pierce decided to back off the double teams and Harden immediately went nuclear to the tune of 60 point in three quarters.
The Hawks unfortunately got both barrels when they decided to pull back on the doubles. Rockets role players went off AND Harden went Harden. By the time they tried to go back to it it was too late, hence the 50 point blowout.

Of course the Hawks are nowhere near the level of the Raptors but the point is teams have been trying this with Harden for some time now.
Harden generally handles it extremely well with the key for the Rockets being whether other guys are making shots.
The Rockets have dealt with a litany of injuries so far this season so they've had to piece together lineups some nights. Harden, as always, has done a masterful job carrying the Rockets through.
It will be interesting to see what the team looks like if/when they finally get healthy.

[TDotJon]

this will work 8 times out of 10..... good enough to win a playoff series.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Raptors have done a nice job of the forcing the ball out of the hands and shutting down stars like LBJ, Kawhi, Embiid and Lilliard this year to largely favorable results.

Raptors had to pick their poison: contain James Harden or risk a career game from Ben McLemore.

Are you claiming McLemore won't hit 8 three pointers every game?

How dare you. HOW DARE YOU SIR!!!



[Note: McLemore averages 1.2 three point makes per game for his career... 2.2 this year. To be fair, he hit 6 - 11 3fg earlier in the week.]

[Danny1616]

Raptors defense said we are going to let the role players beat us instead of Harden.

McLemore, a season 32% 3 point shooting hit a career high 8 3s.

Tough to win when a role player hits 8 3s.

[Krodis]

that's exactly my point, teams have been trapping Curry as soon as he crosses half court the last 6 years, where have you been?

Can you show actual video evidence of it happening on nightly basis?

pull up any game from the playoffs the last 6 years, literally any game. pick one randomly.

How about this one?

Watch on YouTube

[clyde21]

Can you show actual video evidence of it happening on nightly basis?

pull up any game from the playoffs the last 6 years, literally any game. pick one randomly.

How about this one?

Watch on YouTube

especially the 2016 finals.

did u think u had a point there?

[Krodis]

pull up any game from the playoffs the last 6 years, literally any game. pick one randomly.

How about this one?

Watch on YouTube

especially the 2016 finals.

did u think u had a point there?

He's being singled covered by Kevin Love in the last minute of Game 7 of the Finals, where you would think they would be particularly concerned. Unless Kevin Love by himself constitutes a trap?

[Bruteque]

Raptors have done a nice job of the forcing the ball out of the hands and shutting down stars like LBJ, Kawhi, Embiid and Lilliard this year to largely favorable results.

Raptors had to pick their poison: contain James Harden or risk a career game from Ben McLemore.

Are you claiming McLemore won't hit 8 three pointers every game?

How dare you. HOW DARE YOU SIR!!!



[Note: McLemore averages 1.2 three point makes per game for his career... 2.2 this year. To be fair, he hit 6 - 11 3fg earlier in the week.]

They needed to do a better job funneling these uncontested 3s to Westbrook instead. If they gave Westboork 17 uncontested 3s, he would make 5, good deal. Unfortunately, McLemore is an actual NBA player and made 8, not a good deal.

[johanliebert]

Raptors defense said we are going to let the role players beat us instead of Harden.

McLemore, a season 32% 3 point shooting hit a career high 8 3s.

Tough to win when a role player hits 8 3s.

40% from the corner this year.

[clyde21]

How about this one?

Watch on YouTube

especially the 2016 finals.

did u think u had a point there?

He's being singled covered by Kevin Love in the last minute of Game 7 of the Finals, where you would think they would be particularly concerned. Unless Kevin Love by himself constitutes a trap?

maybe you don't understand how basketball works, 40 seconds left, 3 points down, they weren't gonna trap Curry on a play like that...obviously. no one would get trapped in that situation. this is akin to a prevent D in the NFL.

i love how all of the sudden people are pretending Curry getting trapped at half court consistently the last 5 years suddenly didn't happen.

[AussieBuck]

Great player, great passing but I imagine a basketball clinic wouldn't be encouraging not moving at all once you've passed out of the double. Dude is a permanent off-ball statue.

[johanliebert]

I don't want to get into this, but if you all recall at Davidson Curry was literally double teamed an entire game, even when he did not have the ball and so he simply stood far away out of the action and the game really was played 4 on 3.

I realize that was college, but this is not nearly as unprecedented as is being made out, but it's easy to be a prisoner of the moment. We all need to step back and take a breath before declaring anything so categorically.

Or to suggest that because Dirk didn't rack up assists that he didn't have insane gravity or because Shaq literally required a double or more on every play that he didn't have insane gravity because it didn't happen 40 feet from the basket.

This was a unique defense and Harden has exceptional gravity every time he plays. He belongs in any discussion of the greatest offensive players of all-time. But this game isn't some outlier in NBA history by any means.

They did the same to trae young in college but NBA teams dont employ these schemes in the NBA because NBA shooters will make you pay. You can let D1 players who aren't going to play at an level shoot uncontested 3's but we all saw what happened when macklemore/house and tucker were left open all game.

thats why trae young went from struggling to finish his year in college to entering the NBA and finally being able to play 1 vs 1.

[tradejosehesux]

I was at the game and could not believe the lazy game plan to just throw a second defender at him right away regardless of where he was on the floor. Houston may as well of had a shoot around in an empty gym with the amount of open looks they were getting.

Nurse is usually great at in-game adjustments but they refused to change.

[Krodis]

especially the 2016 finals.

did u think u had a point there?

He's being singled covered by Kevin Love in the last minute of Game 7 of the Finals, where you would think they would be particularly concerned. Unless Kevin Love by himself constitutes a trap?

maybe you don't understand how basketball works, 40 seconds left, 3 points down, they weren't gonna trap Curry on a play like that...obviously. no one would get trapped in that situation. this is akin to a prevent D in the NFL.

i love how all of the sudden people are pretending Curry getting trapped at half court consistently the last 5 years suddenly didn't happen.

I just looked through several games worth of highlights from the 2016 WCF, and I can't find a trap besides occasionally on a pick and roll or the end of a quarter. Same with the 2018 WCF and the 2019 WCSF. (I went through those because those are the series I most clearly followed as they happened and I don't recall him being trapped outside of a pick and roll at all.

I have seen plenty of Curry being single guarded by Enes Kanter and Clint Capela though.