Started From The Bottom – If you thought at the beginning of the season that James Harden would be in the top-five of the MVP discussion along with LeBron, Durant, Chris Paul and Carmelo, then you were a starry-eyed homer. If you think it now, then you’re Zach Lowe over at Grantland:
The Rockets likewise could not exist as a turbocharged spread pick-and-roll team, launching 3s at a record pace, without Harden filling every key role within that system: off-the-bounce creator, foul-drawing machine, ace passer (LeBron might be the only guy better at skipping the ball to open shooters in the weakside corner), and occasional screener in the late-game Jeremy Lin–Harden pick-and-roll. Harden has been awful on defense, but among candidates below him on the list, only Duncan and Gasol could cite their own defense as a reason they deserve this no. 5 slot over Harden. And as with Anthony, Harden can plausibly argue his own team has almost enabled his lazy defense by signing Omer Asik to do all the heavy lifting on that end.
Speaking of the Big O, he was also listed as Zach’s third choice for DPOY, behind Marc Gasol and Joakim Noah:
Asik is always in the right spot, takes care of rebounding almost on his own, and allows Houston’s perimeter defenders to gamble all over the floor. He snags the no. 3 spot here over a host of worthy candidates, including Roy Hibbert and Paul George in Indiana, and the position-less LeBron.
If Houston could translate having a top-5 offensive guy and a top-3 defensive guy into a top-10 offense and defense, then a championship might be in the cards.
Who? – Tracy McGrady is not only back in the NBA, he’s playing for the Spurs. If I’m the Rockets, I’m going to kill myself trying to beat the Lakers tonight to try to face San Antonio. With T-Mac in uniform, the Spurs are guaranteed not to advance past the first round.
The Haberstrophy – For Best Driver in the Game (High Volume Edition) goes to the Beard:
SportVU cameras picked up on only 90 of James’ drives because the Heat don’t subscribe to the stat-tracking service (only 15 teams do). But if we expand our scope and look at players with at least 100 drives, we find that James’ Olympic teammate James Harden was the top driver, averaging 1.48 points on his 337 drives to the rim. In fact, 29.9 percent of Harden’s drives ended in a foul, which was the second-highest rate in the league according to SportVU’s sample (Paul Pierce was at 30.4 percent). Crafty.
The Final Countdown – The Rockets may hold the Lakers playoff fate in their young and trembling hands tonight. Mike D’Antoni noted:
“We thought a lot of times during the year, or during the bad times, that it might come down that we had to beat Houston at home to get into the playoffs and that’s what it’s come to and now it’s just up for us to do it.”
Come on, Rockets. Crush them like a soda can.
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