No need to change strategy for traps
Ploy to slow Harden has not prevented open shots by others
The trend did not start with the Nuggets. In a sense, the idea of sending double teams to surround James Harden when he approached even midcourt did not begin with any opponent as much as it had with Harden’s offensive explosions.
The tactic, however, took off beginning the night the Rockets played in Denver and the Nuggets went all-in with the gamble.
“With James Harden,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said that night, “if you let him play one-onone, he’s going to beat you singlehandedly.”
The Nuggets were not the first to defend him that way. The Trail Blazers, Pacers and Clippers had in the second half of previous games. But they were the first to do it all game, and the first to make it work to win.
As the Rockets face the Nuggets again on Tuesday, the defense that seemed a desperate effort to control Harden, a tactic many of the NBA’s most veteran coaches have said they had never seen before, has become routine.
The Rockets, however, believe they have solved the puzzle. Even with their loss to the Warriors last week, they so routinely got the shots they want to take for the shooters they want to take them that Russell Westbrook said it would be “great” if teams continue to defend the Rockets the way the Warriors and others have.
“You’re not going to win all the games,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “It’s like every time we lose, ‘they trapped.’ Well, every time we win, they trapped.
“We’re getting the shots. You can’t be crazy about it. You can’t start chasing your tail. They’re taking the ball out of James’ hands and letting other people make or miss shots. I think we’re good. Offensively, we’re good. We just have to get more of a winning mentality and habits winning teams do.”
The change that has evolved since the run of eight consecutive games with teams trapping Harden at midcourt has been the move of Westbrook to the slot, usually on Harden’s right.
The plan to escape traps had been to have Westbrook work at the point guard in a game of fouron-three with shooters in each corner and either Clint Capela on the opposite baseline dunk position or when Capela is out, with another shooter in the other slot.
That theoretically puts Westbrook in position to drive, drive
and-kick to shooters or take his elbow jumpers. Against the Warriors, he put up eight 3-pointers, missing them all. But the Rockets also got 29 3-pointers with no defender within seven feet. They made just seven of them.
Any change of the offense would be to get the shots the Rockets were already getting, but also could actually make it more difficult. Having Harden run around screens would make it easier to trap the ball out of his hands and still contest shots around him since the second defender would be 20 feet closer to the basket than when trapping near midcourt.
“Now, with Eric (Gordon) coming back it will really take care of itself,” D’Antoni said. “James will still be James.”
In his past nine games, most against versions of the trapping defenses, Harden is averaging 39.2 points on 52.1 percent shooting, including 48.3 percent 3-point shooting. His nine consecutive games with at least four 3-pointers is tied for the third-longest streak in NBA history.
More to the point of the Rockets’ strategy, and the ways in which they can improve against those defenses, by having Harden give up the ball early in the shot clock, the Rockets can more often get it back to him, something that worked better against the Nets’ zone and box-and-one on Saturday.
The Rockets are third in the NBA in offensive rating, three-tenths of a point per 100 possessions behind the Bucks. The have been slightly better offensively since the extensive use of the Harden traps (initially in the second half of games) began Nov. 13. Their offensive production, 3-point shooting, overall shooting and points in the paint have increased in the past 10 games, despite dreadful shooting against the Warriors and poor shooting nights against the Spurs and Pistons.
“If you look at it, we’re getting good shots,” D’Antoni said. “I don’t know what you adjust to. We want him in the slot. We want him going downhill. We want him attacking the rim, and then having him figure it out, whether it is for a 3, layup or a foul (shot.) In eight or nine or his last 10 games, he’s played unbelievably good. He had one off game. I’m confident it (that defensive scheme) doesn’t bother us.
“That’s what we try to do. We screw it up sometimes and have to refine certain things. Overall, it’s like the Golden State game; that was not what got us beat. We didn’t hold it down defensively. The other areas we have to improve in are the reasons we have been losing games. That’s not getting back on defense, not being real tight defensively, having just winning energy. Those are the things we worry about. We do not worry about the trapping.”
They will, however, see it again and again, likely beginning Tuesday in the rematch against the Nuggets.