Los Angeles Lakers: James Harden foul situation started trending against LA
By Ronald Agers
The Lakers possibly started a trend that Golden State may use this series
Sadly, this was the game that Lonzo Ball sprained his ankle and was lost for the season. But before he got hurt, the Lakers were giving the Rockets the business racing to a 21-point lead in the first half. The Lakers had the Rockets totally frustrated. Then when Ball got hurt, the Rockets came back and forced the game into overtime with a miraculous shot by Eric Gordon.
But as you see in the picture above, Luke Walton placed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on Harden all night and made him work for his points. If you looked at the box score of the game you will see that Harden scored 48 points. But by overtime, Harden had nothing left. He did not score in crunch time and a lot of his shots were short.
James Harden was in the middle of his tear throughout the NBA. At this time, nobody could stop him. He basically was carrying the Rockets up the standings. Scottie Pippen gave some tips on how to slow down Harden…
KCP did all of what was brought up in the demonstration.
He played Harden 94 feet to make him work…
He played on Harden’s left shoulder and contested on the back-side…
He forced Harden to pass the ball…
This defense was very effective. It’s the same type of defense that the Utah Jazz tried to do in the first round but did not execute it correctly. The Jazz players defending Harden was directly behind him instead of being on his left shoulder. But as the series went on, Harden has been worn down coming into the second round of the playoffs.