Better ball movement helps counter attention to Harden
The first double-team came on the first play. The Hawks would have doubled James Harden sooner, but he apparently had parked his car at Toyota Center earlier Saturday when they weren’t looking.
Instead, Harden waited for the game to begin to loft a pass to P.J. Tucker in the corner with Tucker setting up Tyson Chandler for a slam.
Minutes later, Tucker slipped a screen behind the double-team and went to the rim. Another doubleteam set up Russell Westbrook in the corner, where he passed up an open 3 to instead drive and kick to a Ben McLemore 3-pointer. Another double-team led to a McLemore drive and dunk.
Finally, the Hawks fully committed to their obsession. Many teams have taken to sending extra defenders to Harden when he crossed midcourt. The Hawks went a step beyond that.
They had De’Andre Hunter and Damian Jones stationed at the jump-circle logo. Harden backed up to a good five feet shy of midcourt. Hunter and Jones might not often be confused for Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the combination of defensive talent the Clippers devoted to stopping Harden, but they are 6-7 and 6-11, and Harden was more than 50 feet from the basket.
Tucker curled toward the middle of the floor, where he took Harden’s pass and quickly moved the ball to McLemore for another 3.
Before long, the Hawks had their fill of McLemore taking target practice. They called off the double-teams to take their chances with Harden one-on-one.
Though that did not work any better, with Harden scoring 60 points in less than 31 minutes, the battering began not just with Harden scoring 13 first-quarter points on just six shots but with the Rockets’ execution burning the defense so badly that coach Mike D’Antoni said, “We were getting everything we drew up.”
“Same as when they played behind him last year,” Rockets guard Austin Rivers said. “At first, we didn’t know what we were doing. After a while, that (stuff) was done. Now, they’re doing this thing where they’re doubling him, and we make teams pay.
“You’re not going to stop us from scoring. We have too much scoring. They can keep going. With him, we’re going to score. Guys can keep getting open 3s. We’ll make them, (and) make them pay.”
After Saturday’s 158-point burst, even with a relative slowdown with the benches cleared for the fourth quarter and two of their top four scorers (Clint Capela and Danuel House Jr.) out, the Rockets are tied with the Bucks as the top-scoring team in the NBA, averaging 120.3 points per game. They have the second-best offensive rating.
The performance, however, was noteworthy for more than Harden’s fourth 60-point game or the Rockets’ fifth game in the past two seasons with at least 25 made 3-pointers. The Rockets also moved themselves and the ball when Harden was surrounded far from the basket.
Against the Clippers eight days earlier, when Leonard and George trapped the ball out of Harden’s hands with a two-point lead in the closing seconds, Westbrook launched a catch-and-shoot 3. Against the Nuggets and Mavericks, the Rockets routinely put up open 3s off similar passes.
On Saturday, however, they moved the ball to turn good shots into better shots.
“It was good,” Westbrook said.
The Rockets’ execution in the halfcourt against the now-familiar double-teams was so sharp — aided by Atlanta being so lax — that they attempted 43 3-pointers when open by four to six feet or wide-open by more than six feet.
“We’ve been seeing that trap defense … so we kind of know where to be and guys were knocking down shots,” Harden said. “Ben, Tuck and Austin, guys came in and did that. Once we start making shots, it’s pretty tough to keep that trap up.”
The Rockets won’t be working against a Hawks defense playing the second half of a back-to-back after an unusually late finish. But the counterattack to the defense they are sure to see often has become more polished and effective.
Increasingly, when Harden identifies an opponent’s strategy, he invites the double-team by stopping near midcourt to keep two defenders far from his teammates going four-on-three. That opens loads of space to work, creating opportunities to get shots that are better than just open shots.
“The more we see it, the more accustomed James gets to it,” D’Antoni said.
“The other guys are getting to spots they’re supposed to be in. It’s a little bit easier. They’re moving. They’re keeping spacing. They’re finding holes (where) James can get them the ball. You can shoot your corner 3s. That’s the best shot that you can get, anyway. I knew James, the more he sees something, the easier it’s going to be.”