There are few things in the NBA that have a more infamous relationship than James Harden and his perceived lack of effort on defense in the eyes of the fans.
James Harden, tasked with carrying the LA Clippers this season in Kawhi Leonard’s absence, hasn’t been off to the best of starts.
His raw numbers pop out as always but he’s struggling to find his shooting touch, hitting just 36.1% of his field goals, dragged down greatly by his 26.8% 3PT shooting.
The LA Clippers aren’t faring much better either but their recent win vs San Antonio Spurs pushed them to 3-4 for the season and James Harden’s steady hand was a key contributor.
The pressure was on the Clippers coming into this game, having lost four of their last six games and in serious danger of making Kawhi Leonard’s eventual return pointless by drifting too far away from contention.
Harden was needed at his best here and he had ample motivation to make a difference too, playing against former teammate Chris Paul.
“The Beard” curbed his takeover instincts and instead, let the game flow naturally, empowering his teammates to make a difference.
It paid off massively as he finished the game with an efficient 17 points on 60% shooting, to add to his eight rebounds, four assists, one steal, and three blocks.
It was all needed to combat Victor Wembanyama’s monster defensive effort as he nearly finished with a triple-double (24 points, 13 rebounds, 9 blocks).
However, it was the defensive effort of James Harden that caught the most attention, and a particular stretch of play at that, sending fans into meltdown.
https://x.com/BricksCenter/status/1853647120592781580
The nonchalance with which he moved throughout the play and still managed to succeed every single time made this clip instantly viral and fans latched on to it.
Harden has generally been trolled a lot for his lack of effort on defense so for him to drop an all-time defensive stretch of play while barely looking like he’s trying was the best of both worlds for NBA fans.
They made a clear point that he’s a gifted athlete on defense who could have been elite at both ends if he just put in some effort into honing those gifts.
One fan took to X, formerly known as Twitter, and said, “Most defense he played in 10 years!”, as another agreed, “Dude playing a whole career of defense in one possession.”
A third said sarcastically: “Well, yeah. James Harden, well-known defensive stalwart”, and the sarcastic comments didn’t stop there as another said, “James Harden’s Defensive Player of the Year tape”.
Some fans praised his quick hands on defense: “He’s always been so good at deflecting the ball precisely” as another said: “He’s actually pretty good at timing his strips. I’ve seen him strip a lot of layup attempts just by slapping it like that.”
A fan summed up the dichotomy of the viral possession in a single comment: “There’s an alternate universe where he put all his time and effort into defense and became the greatest guard defender of all time, he’s always had some of the most impressive hands and defensive instincts.”
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