harden Page 26 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Rockets Are Short On Ideas
The Rockets lost on the road to the crummy Wizards Monday night, in overtime, by the score of 135–131. James Harden was tremendous, in his particular James Harden-ian way, but the team around him mostly sucks, and the Rockets once again have absolutely no reliable form of attack beyond clearing out ...
The Rockets Suck
Yes, okay, fine: James Harden has a strained hamstring that kept him out of the past two games, including last night’s blowout home loss to the Blazers, which dropped the Rockets’ record to 1-5. And yes, Chris Paul missed the two games prior to Harden’s outage—both losses—serving his suspension for ...
The Rockets Are Short-Circuiting
One of the coldest, most ruthlessly efficient scorers in the NBA froze up on a wide-open three that Draymond Green was cool to let him have. P.J. Tucker eventually missed his own three to end the possession, but if you’re wondering how badly the Warriors own James Harden and the Rockets right now, h...
God Help Me, I'm Rooting For The Warriors Now
The bleak doom of all good things in this terrible psycho-capitalist hell-society we have made is to be processed and metabolized into an inert clot of blind, gray, mindless nano-goo by precisely the kind of antiseptic, hyper-rational, ahuman actuarial math on display here:...
You Don't Have To Get Cute With The Rockets
The Rockets are coming after Steph Curry. Through the first three games of their series against they Warriors, they have been committed to one idea that they seem to think will give them the best chance to win: use a pick to switch Curry onto the ballhandler on every offensive possession, and then w...
Let The Cool Players Try To Trash Each Other
Here is a thing that happens way too often in the NBA: Two teams with stars at the same position face each other and, instead of the cool stars checking each other, so that they are competing directly at both ends of the floor, the coaches assign various other designated defenders to do the job of g...
The Rockets Better Not Fuck This Up
The Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors wrapped up their five-game eliminations of, respectively, the Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans last night. Like the series they ended, neither game was particularly closely contested; both losing teams did just enough to preserve their dignity and no m...
Dante Exum Is Now Doing Things
With Ricky Rubio out, Utah’s long, long specimen Dante Exum was stuck with one of the most frustrating defensive assignments in basketball: James Harden and the 1,001 dribbles. The stringy Australian has spent just over half of his NBA career injured, but in those healthy stretches has shown serious...
Heckling Weenie Gets His Phone Smacked By James Harden
Russell Westbrook has a theory that Utah Jazz fans are particularly mouthy toward players, and it’s one that was supported by a fan at last night’s game between the Rockets and Jazz....
One Of These James Harden Step-Backs Is Unlike The Others
James Harden was comically unguardable in Sunday night’s 104-101 win over the T-Wolves, certainly if your name was Andrew Wiggins, and even if your name was Jimmy Butler. Houston must have been relieved to see it. The Rockets’ offense relies on the three-ball more than any other team’s, with fully 5...
In today’s GQ profile, likely NBA MVP James Harden offered this insight into the league: “My mom—she hangs out with, like, moms of other players that I don’t even talk to,” he said. “There are mom meetings, things like that.” The next question, naturally, is whether Harden’s mom met with Wesley John...
Russell Westbrook Says Shut Up About Stat-Padding
Russell Westbrook needs 16 rebounds tonight against the Grizzlies in order to average a triple-double for the second straight season, which would be an unimpeachably impressive achievement. After Carmelo Anthony joked earlier this week about Westbrook “stealing” rebounds, Westbrook spoke out against...
The Universe Must Deliver A Rockets-Thunder Playoff Series
The Oklahoma City Thunder handed the Houston Rockets just their 7th home loss of the season Saturday night, by the relatively low score of 108-102. The Rockets were without Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson, but that’s not supposed to matter much—the Rockets had all of Chris Paul, James Harden, and Clin...
James Harden Will Beat You And Humiliate You
Iso-ball, for all its associations with acts of heroism in the clutch, is supposed to be a dicey proposition for the guy with the ball in his hands. Sure, it has created some cinematic shots throughout the years, but its defining trait is its inefficiency. Iso-ball is a tactic that’s more defined by...
The Rockets Are Driving Opposing Coaches Insane
Thursday night, after his Clippers lost to the Rockets in Houston, Doc Rivers described the officiating as “a complete joke” and all but chalked up the five-point loss to a 23-8 free throw disparity between the two teams. For this act of public criticism, Rivers was fined $15,000 by the league....
Russell Westbrook MVP Truthers Are Truly Around The Bend
If I weren’t a basketball fan—if you aren’t one right now—basketblogging, I swear, would itself be an insurmountable barrier to entry. Cricket has incomprehensible structure; baseball has interminable periods of non-action; basketball has a breathtakingly pretentious universe of bloggers and Twitte...
Which Was Longer: James Harden's Staredown Or Tom Brady's Kiss With His Son?
Everyone had a hearty chuckle (or gasped in horror) as James Harden extracted Wesley Johnson’s soul with a crossover last night, but The Outline’s Jeremy Gordon had an offhand joke that made us think. He said Harden’s staredown of Johnson was longer than Tom Brady’s definitely normal lips-on-lips ki...
James Harden On Why He Stared At The Lifeless Pile Of Flesh That Used To Be Wesley Johnson: "I Was Trying To Figure Out What He Was Doing"
James Harden did one of the meanest things you’ll ever see in a basketball game last night, when he crossed Wesley Johnson into the floor and then just stood there, for what felt like an eternity, and stared at Johnson before eventually splashing a three. Harden was asked about the long stare after ...
James Harden Breaks Wesley Johnson's Ankles, Soul, Spirit
Wesley Johnson’s poor ankles went the way of all flesh tonight, sadly before their time. James Harden—who provided half of the Rockets’ scoring in a 34-point first quarter—was responsible:...
Steve Kerr Accidentally Sent A Tweet Criticizing The NBA Because He Was Foiled By Technology
Last night, Warriors coach Steve Kerr replied to an NBA tweet that featured a video of James Harden hitting a three-pointer (and appearing to travel, though the egregious gather move is technically legal). He deleted his take within seconds, but that was far too late....