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Thoughts On The West All-Star Reserves

January 17, 2013  ·  8:11PM

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Chris Paul was voted an All-Star starter for the Western Conference and Jeremy Lin, after being in contention based on early returns in the NBA’s annual popularity contest, was not. Order has been restored.

allstar-13-200That means the West opening lineup went according to what would have been easy preseason predictions — Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin and Dwight Howard in the frontcourt, Kobe Bryant and Paul at guard — and that means the coach’s vote on the reserves won’t have to use a roster spot to right a wrong at the level of Lin ahead of CP3.

It will be down to the usual hard choices to fill out the roster. This year, that could mean picking between teammates (Stephen Curry or David Lee in Golden State), between teammates at the same position (Memphis reps Zach Randolph or Marc Gasol for the frontcourt), and whether the newest test for a rookie (Damian Lillard) will be patience.

There are always cases to be made. But here are the seven most-deserving selections for the West All-Star bench. (For Steve Aschburner‘s look at the East, click here.)

THE BACKCOURT

There are several names. Russell Westbrook. James Harden. Tony Parker. Curry. Lillard. Jamal Crawford. There just isn’t much room for debate for the two picks.

Harden is fourth in the league in scoring at 26.3 ppg and the leader of the sudden recovery in Houston, the host city. Westbrook is top five in assists and steals.

My picks: Westbrook and Harden.

THE FRONTCOURT

Now we’re talking debate. (And now we’re also talking a little strange to have a year without Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol or Kevin Love.)

Randolph (16.4 ppg, 11.6 rpg) and Lee (19.7 ppg, 10.9 rpg) are double-double power forwards for teams in or pushing for the top half of the playoff race. Gasol (13.2 ppg and 7.4 rpg) and Serge Ibaka (14 ppg, 8.3 rpg) can’t keep up statistically, but defense is a major reason their teams are winning at a brisk pace. Tim Duncan, usually a popular pick for coaches in years he is not voted a starter by fans, is at 17.1 ppg and 9.6 rpg in just 30.1 minutes. LaMarcus Aldridge (20.6 ppg, 8.6 rpg) has helped push the Trail Blazers into playoff contention ahead of schedule. Denver’s Kenneth Faried (12.3 ppg, 10.0 rpg) and Utah’s Al Jefferson (17.4 ppg, 9.8 rpg) may get support.

My picks: Randolph, Duncan and Lee. Randolph likely breezes in. It would be a surprise if Duncan does not make it to Houston, either this way or via the wild card, but it will be interesting to see if Duncan and Parker split votes among coaches around the West for San Antonio representation. The Spurs could get both and deserve both, but some voters may prefer to get more teams involved rather than have two subs from the same team. Lee could be a close call to make it.

THE WILD CARDS

Two players chosen by coaches regardless of position. Some voters may be weighing the other picks — starters and their previous selections by position — and some may simply go for most deserving and not care if the roster is guard-heavy. But everyone mentioned above but not added specifically as frontcourt or guard will be a candidate here.

My picks: Parker and Curry. Parker for sure. If some coaches are debating whether to pick one from Golden State’s Lee-Curry option, Curry deserves a slight edge. The position breakdown could make that moot, though.

All-Star starters announced.

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Opportunistic Nuggets Strike Gold

January 14, 2013  ·  9:41AM






HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – A rugged early-season schedule and the lack of a true go-to-guy could have been their downfall. It had the potential to render all of that preseason fawning over the Denver Nuggets a waste of time, if these Nuggets weren’t made of the rugged materials at their core.

They played a staggering 17 of their first 24 games on the road, away from the friendly and high altitude confines of the Pepsi Center, going 12-12 during that stretch to stay afloat just long enough to get to the place where they are now. And that place is smack in the middle of a stretch that sees them playing 12 of 14 games at home with a chance to make some serious noise in the Western Conference standings.

The Nuggets are 10-4 since their schedule evened out and are winners of five straight after a Sunday’s victory over the Golden State Warriors. At 23-16, Denver is looking more and more like the team some pundits believed to be a challenger to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Northwest Division and the Western Conference.

There is still plenty of work to do, of course. Even with this recent climb, they are still looking from the outside on the top four in the West. But they’re in a position now to battle the Memphis Grizzlies and Warriors for that fourth spot.

One of the biggest reasons they are in this position is their penchant for playing their best basketball in the fourth quarter of games that could go either way, as Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post explains:

Suddenly, the fourth quarter has become the Nuggets’ quarter.

Whether they slosh through the first three quarters or play well from the start and find themselves in a tight contest, the fourth has been the separation quarter for this team, trying to hit its stride this month.

The Nuggets outscored Golden State 37-18 in the fourth quarter Sunday night to make a tough game look like an easy 116-105 win at the Pepsi Center. It was the Nuggets’ season-high fifth straight win.

So what’s different in the fourth quarter?

“Urgency and desperation and professional pride,” Nuggets coach George Karl said.

The Nuggets turn up the defense and shift the offense into overdrive in the final period. During this five-game winning streak, they’ve outscored their opponents 151-102 in the fourth, an average of 30.2 points to 20.4.

“I feel like we’re most focused in the fourth quarter for some reason,” center JaVale McGee said. “I don’t know why. I feel like we take the first half for granted, but we really go hard in the fourth quarter.”

In addition to the surge, the Nuggets appear to have struck gold on another front. Ty Lawson and Danilo Gallinari are turning into the sort of 1-2 punch that you need to grind out games, guys who power the attack when need be. They combined for 41 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds against the Warriors.

It doesn’t hurt to get 22 points from your bench in the fourth, as they did Sunday. But the guys who make the Nuggets go on a nightly basis have to do their part to create an opportunity for the bench to handle their business.

But with a core group that also includes HT fave Kenneth “The Manimal” Faried, the versatile and dangerous Andre Iguodala and crafty veterans like Andre Miller and the underrated Corey Brewer, the Nuggets have the pieces to keep their current run going for a while.

With nine of their next 11 games at home, opportunity is banging on the door for the Nuggets.

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Nuggets Can Make A Move At Home

January 1, 2013  ·  11:21AM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – You have to wonder how many boxes Andre Iguodala still has unpacked in his new place in Denver.

Acquired this summer in a four-team deal, Iguodala hasn’t had much time to get settled in his new city. Over the first two months of the season, his Nuggets have had just one homestand that lasted more than a game. That was a two-game set against the Warriors and Hornets in the days after Thanksgiving.

Every other home game the Nuggets have played has been sandwiched by road games. In total, they’ve played 22 of their 32 games away from the Pepsi Center.

While the Nuggets’ 17-15 record may be disappointing to those who projected them as a top-four team in the Western Conference, George Karl seems pretty happy.

“I think it’s getting better, I think it’s improving and I’m very proud of them,” Karl told the Denver Post. “This is a tough stretch and we’re above and beyond where I thought we’d be. I thought 16-16 would be great. I don’t know what the celebration is going to be, other than a day off. And then somehow put a double-digit win column up in January. We’ve got to go 10 games or more in January.”

There’s reason for Karl’s optimism, because 15 of the Nuggets’ next 18 games (12 of 15 in January) are at home, starting with Tuesday’s big matchup with the streaking Clippers on NBA TV (9 p.m. ET).

And home has been very good to the Nuggets. They’re 9-1 at the Pepsi Center, outscoring their opponents by 11.9 points per 100 possessions in the 10 games. That’s a difference of 13.8 points per 100 possessions from how they’ve done on the road (-1.9). And that’s the biggest home-away discrepancy in the league.

Biggest home-away discrepancy, point differential per 100 possessions

Team Home Rank Away Rank Diff.
Denver +11.9 5 -1.9 13 +13.80
Miami +12.8 4 -1.0 10 +13.76
Phoenix +2.1 19 -11.5 27 +13.6
Detroit +3.7 16 -8.8 25 +12.4
Boston +4.3 15 -7.3 23 +11.7

The difference between the home Nuggets and the away Nuggets has been on both ends of the floor. Their offense has been 7.5 points per 100 possessions better at home, and their defense has been 6.3 points per 100 possessions better.

Interestingly, even though the Nuggets shot a putrid 1-for-32 from outside the paint in Portland on Dec. 20, on neither end of the floor has shooting from the field been the biggest difference. Offensively, they’ve been better at taking care of the ball and getting to the free-throw line…

Nuggets’ offense, home vs. away

Location OffRtg Rank eFG% Rank OREB% Rank TmTOV% Rank FTA Rate Rank
Home 110.1 4 51.0% 10 34.2% 1 14.7% 10 .321 6
Away 102.6 9 49.8% 9 31.4% 3 16.7% 21 .284 9

OffRtg = Points scored per 100 possessions
eFG% = (FGM + (0.5 * 3PM)) / FGA
OREB% = Percentage of available offensive rebounds obtained
TmTOV% = Turnovers per 100 possessions
FTA Rate = FTA / FGA

Defensively, it’s all about rebounding…

Nuggets’ defense, home vs. away

Location DefRtg Rank OppeFG% Rank DREB% Rank OppTmTOV% Rank OppFTA Rate Rank
Home 98.2 8 47.4% 12 75.1% 4 14.9% 22 .244 7
Away 104.5 15 48.5% 11 69.8% 27 14.2% 21 .265 10

DefRtg = Points allowed per 100 possessions
DREB% = Percentage of available defensive rebounds obtained

Turnovers and free-throw rate are understandable. But rebounding? How are you a great rebounding team at home and an awful rebounding team on the road?

The numbers point straight at Kenneth Faried, who’s either a good rebounder or a great rebounder, depending on where he’s playing. Faried has grabbed 27.6 percent of available defensive boards (which would rank him ninth in the league) when he’s been on the floor at the Pepsi Center, but only 20.8 percent (which would rank him 36th) in all other arenas.

So, on one hand, Nuggets fans can be encouraged. They’ve been great at home so far and have a tremendous opportunity to move up the Western Conference standings in the next five weeks.

On the other hand, you have to wonder why they can’t just rebound better on the road.

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John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.

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Gallinari Drops 39 And Then Thanks Mavs

December 29, 2012  ·  12:56AM

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DALLAS – They kept giving, so Danilo Gallinari kept taking.

The Denver Nuggets forward scored a career-high 39 points and tied a career-high with seven 3-pointers, a feat he’d accomplished just once before on Oct. 28, 2009, with the New York Knicks. Gallinari put up 11 high-arching bombs from beyond the arc in Friday’s 106-85 rout of the reeling Dallas Mavericks simply because, well, no one really stepped out to guard him.

Afterward, Gallinari acknowledged as much, and as any proper house guest should, he politely thanked the Mavs for their hospitality.

“I was open and I shoot it,” the Italian-born Gallinari said. “So, I got to thank the defense they prepared on me for leaving me open for the 3.”

The Nuggets led by as many as 15 in the first half, but with the Mavs coming on and down only 50-47, Gallinari went to work in the final 5.6 seconds. He buried a 3 and then, after Andre Miller picked off a pass, Gallinari left the Mavs flat-footed at the rim. He threw down Ty Lawson‘s missed 3 at the buzzer for a momentum-changing 5-point swing to give him 15 points and the Nuggets a 55-47 halftime lead.

Then, he opened the third quarter with his fourth 3-pointer and the demolition was on. He and Andre Iguodala went a combined 11-for-17 from beyond the arc while slumping Dallas, losers of five in a row and eight of nine, was just 5-for-25.

“It’s not pretty right now,” said Mavs forward Dirk Nowitzki, who had rough night, going 2-for-10 from the floor for five points in his third game back from October knee surgery. “On the defensive end, our coverages get blown left and right and the other team makes us pay.”

Gallinari was 14-for-23 overall and also had eight rebounds, three assists and just one turnover in 34 minutes.

“He should [have] got 40 [points],” said Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried, who contributed a massive effort with 11 points and 19 rebounds. “That was a phenomenal performance.”

Gallinari, 24, blew away his season-high of 28 a little more than a week ago in a win over the Spurs. He came into Friday’s game not having made more than four 3s in a game this season, and he was shooting the 3-ball at just a 31.7-percent clip. He had made nine 3s in his last five games.

“My teammates were really finding me tonight and I’m glad I was making my shots,” Gallinari said. “Tonight was one of those games where after you release the ball you think that it’s going in.”

And they pretty much did.

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Streak Over, Lakers Back In The Crosshairs?

December 27, 2012  ·  8:46AM

LOS ANGELES – Well, that didn’t last long.

The Los Angeles Lakers enjoyed the glow of that Christmas Day win over the New York Knicks for all of what, 18 hours? All of that “clicking” they were doing during their five-game win streak went up in smoke in a matter of minutes Wednesday night in Denver.

That “desperate team” label Steve Nash said they needed to play with every night was nowhere in sight during their 126-114 loss to a Nuggets team that flew in after spending Christmas in Los Angeles, just like the Lakers. The 126 points is the most these Lakers have surrendered all season. The loss couldn’t have come at a worse time for a team trying to right itself and continue its recent run.

A younger, faster and surprisingly much more physical Nuggets team — the same one that was rocked by the Clippers in the Christmas nightcap at Staples Center — ran circles around a Lakers team that seemed frustrated from the start with their inability to keep up. And just like that, the Lakers are back in the crosshairs, raising questions not only about the validity of that five-game streak but also whether or not they’ll be able to deal with teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and Clippers (as young, fast and physical as they get) come playoff time in the Western Conference.

The Lakers’ youngest and most physical specimen, Dwight Howard, certainly didn’t seem up to the task against the Nuggets. He exited in the third quarter after getting ejected for a flagrant-2 foul for a hand to the face on Kenneth Faried, who worked the Lakers’ bigs all night.

Howard’s finger-pointing after a game in which the Nuggets outrebounded their guests 48-38 and piled up 25 second-chance points should be of particular interest to teammates like Kobe Bryant and Nash  as well as Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni.

“Guys got to be in the right spots and they have to be taught it and it has to be something that you practice on so guys can understand,” Howard said. “They have to go through it. You just can’t talk about defense or talk about where to go. You actually have to show guys where to go.”

Howard managed seven rebounds to go along with 12 points in the 27 minutes he played. But any signs of the three-time Defensive Player of the Year that fans had grown accustomed to seeing over the years were as faint as they’ve been all season. Howard hasn’t looked like his normal self after offseason back surgery.

And in the face of a non-stop rush from Faried, JaVale McGee and Kosta Koufos, the Lakers’ lack of effort and energy was glaring. That’s probably why D’Antoni didn’t hold his tongue when asked what effect Howard’s absence had on the Lakers’ comeback effort down the stretch. ”Not a whole lot,” he said and then looked the other way.

“You can’t play a team on the road and time after time you stop them and they get the rebound and put it back in,” D’Antoni said. “You can’t do it … You can’t just keep coming back. You can’t just keep letting them score. For whatever reason they just had more legs. Whether they’re younger or faster, I don’t know, but we couldn’t keep them in front of us.”

The Nuggets didn’t show the slightest bit of restraint in attacking the Lakers where they felt they were weakest, in the middle. Faried assaulted  the backboards and the rim at every opportunity, living up to his nickname of the “Manimal.”

“I think it was a little bit of frustration,” Faried told reporters after the game about Howard’s hard foul. “He saw my eyes. I wasn’t going to back down. I wasn’t going to try and float it, I was going to try to dunk on him. He saw it, that’s why he put his hand directly in my face. That’s when I say, ‘Dang, I wish I would have jumped higher.’”

Bryant might have said it best in his final locker room salvo on Christmas, when he politely explained that nothing the Lakers do, good or bad, during the regular season will end up on their final report card. He scored 40 points for the fourth time this season against the Nuggets, extending his streak of games with 30 or more to double digits (10).

No one but the die-hard Bryant fans cares about that this morning, though.

“People can be extremely positive of how you are performing and the job you are doing the entire regular season, the entire playoffs,” Bryant said. “But if you lose in the Finals, you are the [expletive] worst. If you suck for the entire season and win the Finals, people don’t give a [expletive] about what happened before then. It’s all about what you do in the Finals. It doesn’t matter what you do on Monday or Tuesday. It matters what you do in the Finals.”

The Lakers have a long way to go to get there … to The Finals, that is. In fact, they might want to spend more time worrying about what they do on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and every other day until they secure a playoff bid.

They can turn their attention to The Finals after taking care of that bit of business.

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Faried Already A Positive Example

December 20, 2012  ·  5:41PM

Kings coach Keith Smart mentioned something strange the other day. He said Thomas Robinson, the rookie from Kansas, is being shown clips of Denver’s Kenneth Faried as a player to emulate.

Both are young power forwards, both needing to develop offensive games, both relying on enviable amounts of athleticism. It’s easy to see Smart drawing a straight line from one to the other.

Faried, the No. 22 pick in 2011 — a spot in the draft where most are just trying to crack the rotation in their second season — is barely getting started with his career and an opposing coach is telling a lottery pick and projected foundation of Sacramento’s future to be like the guy who has yet to play an 82-game schedule. That’s a special compliment and a sign of how far Faried has come. At 10 rebounds a game in just 29.5 minutes — relatively limited time for a starter — he has already blown past the expectations of a lot of teams who passed on him in the draft as too small at 6-foot-8 or too one dimensional with a lacking offense. But, look, he is a key part of an offense after all.

The mid-range game he has worked to improve is still very much a work in progress, so Faried is still only a threat close to the basket. Yet there he is, the No. 4 scorer on the Nuggets, at 12.3 points a game and 53.1 percent from the field, even with a slight cooling in December.

“There’s no play in the book for him, but every night he’s going to end up with 10, 15 and sometimes 20 points because of the effort he gives,” Smart said. “Pushing the ball up the floor, he runs with those guys. He gets out on the break and finishes up a lot of those breaks.

“Those are hustle points. That’s where you get to a point where a coach can write it down: ‘Tonight, no play call, and I can [still] put down 10 to 15 every night.’ I know I’m going to put that in a little file cabinet and every single night, maybe seven out of 10 times, he’s going to have those numbers. That’s what he does.”

Faried has already established himself far beyond what some teams would have imagined a year ago at this time, when Faried’s rookie season was just about to begin without a summer league or much of a training camp. If he starts dropping in 14-footers and gets up to 16 or 17 points a game, along with the double-digit rebounding, then a lot of video departments will be burning a “Kenneth Faried mix” to hand out to young players.

“I don’t think I’ve come that far yet,” Faried countered. “I think I’ve still got more to go.”

But he also has quickly earned an important spot on a playoff team.

“I’m excited I [have],” Faried said. “But I’m not content. I think I have more in me. I can bring more. One day – I believe it, I’ll say it – I can become an All-Star.”

He will have to settle for shining example for now.

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Nuggets Still Search For New Identity

November 16, 2012  ·  12:11PM

HANG TIME, Texas — Leave it to George Karl to enjoy running a gantlet of four games that started at home against Miami and now goes to San Antonio, Memphis and Minnesota.

“I just think I’m a sadistic guy,” he said.

Or more likely a just a coach that likes a challenge.

Karl’s Nuggets were a trendy pick by many to make a strong push up Western Conference standings following the offseason deal that brought Andre Iguodala to Denver.

This was a team of no true superstar that was going to get out in the open court, apply defensive pressure like a vise and run, run, run it’s way into the role of a real playoff contender.

But to date, instead of cranking things up a notch, the Nuggets have regressed, as Karl admitted to our buddy Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post:

“There’s no question we’re not wearing teams out like we did last year,” said Nuggets coach George Karl, whose team, for much of the night, looked like it was the one that played the night before in L.A., not the Heat.

LeBron James finished with 27 points, seven rebounds and 12 assists, playing point forward for much of the game.

“They made their run, they’re a great team at home,” James said, “but we were able to withstand it.”

The Heat was without guard Dwyane Wade, who sat out because of an ankle injury he reaggravated in Wednesday night’s loss at the L.A. Clippers.

Meanwhile, Andre Miller played like Ty Lawson, while Ty Lawson played pathetically. Lawson went scoreless, 0-for-7, while Miller scored 19 points with a pair of 3s.

“It was a game we definitely needed to win before we go out on this three-game road trip,” Miller said from a nearly empty losing locker room. “We talked about their 3-point shooters, we just didn’t play a good floor game.”

Now the Nuggets stand at 4-5 because they have been the picture of mediocrity. Their offensive rating (103.8), according to Basketball-Reference.com, stands 15th in the league, while their defensive rating (103.3) ranks 17th.

This was supposed to be a newer version of the 2004 Pistons who won a championship without one big dog pulling the sled all season. But instead they have too often looked like Iguodala’s old team that he left behind in Philly, where he leads a team in scoring that for the most part does not a singular focus, except fo the rebounding monster that is Kenneth Faried.

We can cut the Nuggets some slack because they have an absolutely brutal schedule. They opened with six of their first nine games — and 17 of 23 — on the road.

“I’m kind of happy with how we’ve played. I’m not happy with how well we’ve played. But as a coach, how is probably more important than how well.”

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Dream Work All About “D” For Faried

November 8, 2012  ·  3:23PM

Kobe Bryant. LeBron James. Dwight Howard. Amar’e Stoudemire. Emeka Okafor. JaVale McGee.

Every time word gets out that another acolyte has ventured into the temple of Hakeem Olajuwon, the high priest of fancy footwork, the questions are all about offense.

Did he teach you how to spin like a top to get free for a layup? Did he show you how to tie David Robinson into more knots than a pretzel bakery with two, three, four different head fakes? Did you learn the secret of the Dream Shake?

For Kenneth Faried, the most valuable lessons learned from Olajuwon over the summer came at the other end of the floor.

“Everybody thinks it was about offense, learning how to score,” said Faried, who worked out in Sugar Land, Tex. with Olajuwon and his Nuggets teammate McGee. “But I think what is going to help me the most are the things that Hakeem showed to help me with defense.

“The footwork and me just doing the twirls and spins, learning how to keep my feet moving constantly are things that can make me a better defender.

“I can read people defensively and react to them or anticipate and get to a spot ahead of my opponent. And he showed me that I can get out there and play perimeter guys and still at the same time I can shut down the biggest bigs on the inside.”

Olajuwon was a five-time member of the All-Defensive Team, was named Defensive Player of the Year with the Rockets in both 1993 and 1994 and averaged 3.1 blocked shots and 1.7 steals over the course of his 18-year NBA career.

“People forget Hakeem was a great defender,” said Denver coach George Karl. “He won Defensive Player of the Year. For me, our big guys are really rebounders and defenders first. The offense comes to them through our guards attacking and making plays for them as much as giving them opportunities to make plays for themselves.”

From Bryant to Howard to James, the primary reason that most of them seek out Olajuwon as a tutor is to glean a few tips from his unique footwork to create space down in the low post that makes it easier to get shots off. But from the time that he first took up the game back in Nigeria, Olajuwon’s first love was always protecting the basket as a shot blocker. It was his penchant for jumping into the passing lanes and going down onto the floor to make steals that led to Hakeem wearing what became his signature large red knee pads.

Faried played a key role in the Nuggets’ help defense in Wednesday night’s win at Houston, frequently cutting off and contesting James Harden’s drives to the basket. He made a timely block of Harden’s try for a layup with 47.9 seconds left in the game that helped seal the win.

Though the 6-foot-8 Faried’s offensive range is limited and his style is to simply attack the basket and the pursuit of rebounds ferociously, he is trying to expand what he can.

“It helps a lot to get the finesse game,” he said. “It helps you as a person to not have to dunk everything at the rim. You can sometimes, when somebody’s fouling, learn how to maneuver or finesse it up for a layup or just know how to go through contact without always dunking.

“But for my role on our team, I found Hakeem’s defensive help and his philosophy and style of moving in order to always stay in front of his man to be the most valuable. That’s a way I’d like to play.”

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Stymied Harden Will Have To Adjust

November 8, 2012  ·  10:21AM





HOUSTON — It wasn’t the first time that George Karl tossed the kitchen sink at the biggest gun in the Rockets’ holster.

Back in the day when Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp knew a thing or two about playing defense in rainy Seattle, Karl would have just about everyone on his roster throw an umbrella over Hakeem Olajuwon.

So even though Andre Iguodala is a top-flight perimeter defender, the plan was to have constant help coming all night against James Harden.

The league’s leading scorer coming into the game at 35.3 points per game, Harden shot just 5-for-15 from the field (0-for-5 on 3-pointers) to finish with 15 points in Denver’s 93-87 win.

While Iguodala had the head-up assignment of staying with and in front of Harden from start to finish, the Nuggets big men made it a point to step up and show on the pick and roll and power forward Kenneth Faried was always lurking on Harden’s moves toward the basket.

Against Andre Iguodala and the Nuggets, Houston’s James Harden struggled on Wednesday night.

“Iguodala’s pretty good,” Karl said. “But we wanted to put two on Harden and try not to ever give him gaps. I thought early in the game he had some fast break opportunities that we got our hands on the ball and got some turnovers [on plays] that he sometimes he turns into three-point plays.

“I thought Kenneth was very aware and alert to him. We just wanted to put two guys on him as much as possible. Also Andre’s long and gets a lot of deflections. He must have had five or six.”

The Rockets cut a 10-point Denver lead down to 91-87 and had a chance to get closer when Harden squirted through a gap down the left side of the lane. Faried swooped in to reject the layup with 47.9 seconds to go and eventually hammered down a dunk to seal the win.

After his blazing start to the season scoring 37 and 45 points to earn Western Conference player of the week honors in leading the Rockets to a 2-0 start, Harden has made just 13 of 39 shots in back to back losses to the Trail Blazers and Nuggets.

It was one thing for the Rockets to catch everyone in the NBA off-guard by making the blockbuster trade with Oklahoma City on the cusp of the season opener and for Harden to take the world by storm, cruising and freelancing all over the court against the Pistons and Hawks. But that was never going to last once every team got a look at Harden in the Rockets offense and scouting reports began to focus on stopping him as the only real elite level scoring threat.

Iguodala’s pressure and the rest of the Nuggets’ swarming defense also forced Harden into six turnovers.

“Even though we didn’t play well, it’s still just our fourth game together,” Harden said. “As the games go on, we’ll get better and it’s just the fact that we haven’t played together, we haven’t had a training camp or have time to really put in some sets, so we’re kind of figuring things out as we go.”

But the truth is it’s more than that. It’s Harden going from being the third man in the Thunder attack, potentially explosive in any given game, now he has to be consistently potent and effective on every night.

Following the harassment from Iguodala, Harden gets run-ins with stout defenders Tony Allen of Memphis and LeBron James of Miami in the next five days.

“He’s going to have a tough task of being the main guy defenses lock into every night and just got to be really focused and adjust to it,” Iguodala said.

To Harden this is all a new experience. To Karl it’s simply old hat. It’s hard to shoot through an umbrella.

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Five Teams In The Danger Zone

September 20, 2012  ·  12:54PM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Of all the lists your team could make here at the hideout, this is the one you don’t want to see them on.

Making the top five or bottom five is at least a definitive indicator of where you teams fits in the NBA’s bigger picture. But when you make HT’s Danger Zone List, the only thing we know for sure is that we’re not sure exactly where your team fits this season.

They might have the pieces to be special.

But what if the pieces don’t fit together?

And again, it’s not about the teams that won’t make the playoffs this season (you know who you are) or the teams that might be headed for a cliff. It’s about the teams that remain a mystery to us with the start of training camps around the league just a few days away.

It’s that sort of uncertainty that led our crack research staff to these five teams …

(more…)

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