Houston Rockets superstar James Harden said after the fractious Game 1 at Golden State that all he wanted was a “fair chance.” Harden added “we all know what happened a couple years ago with Kawhi. Call the game the way it’s supposed to be called, and we’ll live with the results.”
The Kawhi Leonard play Harden refers to occurred in 2017 when Leonard wasn’t given room to land after a jumper, with the Warriors Zaza Pachulia closing out and getting his feet under Leonard’s landing spot. Leonard missed the rest of the playoffs with an ankle injury and the NBA made an explicit rule that defenders have to allow shooters room to land. Players like Harden have been taking advantage ever since, jumping forward to make close-outs nearly impossible. Here’s what Harden does on offense to take advantage of the rule:
Another look at one of Klays close outs on Harden. This time with lines drawn from where he took off and landed pic.twitter.com/uM6rk7457d
— The Render (@TheRenderNBA) April 29, 2019
But Harden learned the lesson on the other end too. Defensively, he does to opponents exactly what he complains they do to him. Here is video of Harden failing to give 2x NBA MVP Steph Curry room to land after closing on Curry’s jumper.
Harden not giving Curry space to land pic.twitter.com/yFK50db4Al
— The Render (@TheRenderNBA) April 29, 2019
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