Harden’s no-show leaves Rockets on outside looking in
HOUSTON — James Harden went up for a 3-pointer, changed his mind and tossed the ball between two teammates.
He drove for a layup before inexplicably throwing the ball into a sea of San Antonio Spurs.
After putting together an MVP-caliber year, the indelible images of Harden and the Houston Rockets will be the lowlights from a 39-point loss in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals to a San Antonio team playing without Kawhi Leonard and starting point guard Tony Parker.
And those images will linger for some time.
Harden, who didn’t even attempt a shot until midway through the second quarter, was 2 of 11 and finished with 10 points to tie a season low as the Rockets were embarrassed on their home court on Thursday night to end their season with a thud.
“I feel so sorry for him because he’s had an unbelievable — he’s had an historic year,” coach Mike D’Antoni said.
Most people outside the organization aren’t feeling sorry for the point guard, and were left scratching their heads at how such an elite player could perform so poorly in a game that mattered so much.
Harden wasn’t available on Friday, but he took blame for the loss after the game. However, he had no answers as to what went so terribly wrong on Thursday night.
“It’s frustrating, definitely,” he said. “Especially the way we were resilient all year long, fought through adversity. We’ve been really good at bouncing back … it hurts. It stings. We’ve just got to figure out a way to get better and we will.”
NBA COMBINE:
De’Aaron Fox considers himself highly competitive and doesn’t shy away from matching skills with anyone.
Still, there’s one player he knows he can’t beat: his mother.
Lorraine Harris-Fox played at Arkansas-Little Rock in the 1980s and holds the school record for freethrow percentage at .928.
“She knows what she’s talking about,” De’Aaron Fox said Friday at the NBA Combine in Chicago. “The one thing she stays on me is free-throw shooting. If there’s anything she criticizes me about, it’s shooting free throws.”
Fox, a point guard who played one year at Kentucky, is considered a topfive pick in next month’s NBA draft. Most of the projected top picks decided not to attend the Combine — even to take physicals and meet with representatives from individual team — but Fox wouldn’t have missed it.
“I just wanted to be here,” he said. “I watched the combine so many years growing up. Not necessarily playing or doing drills — I knew I didn’t have to and it wouldn’t help me — but just being here and getting to know the teams could change some minds.”
Kennedy Meeks, a 6-10 senior who helped North Carolina win the national championship, was asked if big men were now overlooked with the emphasis on small ball in the NBA.
“Maybe a little bit, but I think you just go out there and showcase your talent,” he said. “You don’t worry about the politics, you don’t worry about the critics and all that.”