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Harden’s Safe Space
James Harden just wants a fair chance. In fact he said so himself after his Houston Rockets lost game one of the Western Conference Semifinals 104-100 to the Golden State Warriors.
“I mean, I just want a fair chance, man,” said Harden, who scored 35 points but was 9-of-28 from the floor and 4-of-16 from behind the 3-point line. “Call the game how it’s supposed to be called, and that’s it. And I’ll live with the results.”
Harden, who has led the league in free throws attempted and made in each of the past five seasons, gets fouled while shooting his three’s more, far more, than any other player. It’s largely because his step-back jump shot is so difficult to contest.
Rockets head coach, Mike D’Antoni walked a fine line after the game. He wanted the world to know that the referees told him that they missed some first half calls. He faces a potential fine for criticizing officiating. “So, I mean, the response was they came in halftime and said they missed them. That’s what they told me. They missed four of them. That’s 12 foul shots. So be it. They’re trying to do the best they can do.”
Hopefully both Harden and D’Antoni realize that all of the calls that they are referencing above are “after the shot, safe landing space calls.” The new foul rule is indeed a rule. However, it doesn’t affect the accuracy of the shot. The non calls certainly could have resulted in free throws for the career 86% free throw shooter. Heck, maybe they would have been enough for the Rockets to win.
We wonder more, much more, about the 19 shots from the field that he missed. And, 12 of those were either from or beyond the three-point line. Make one more two point attempt and one more three point attempt and you win the game for sure, refs be damned. Nine for 28 is 32% overall. Four for 16 is 25% from three. Phew.
So now the Rockets are down 1-0. They’ve never beaten the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs during the Harden era. Make no mistake about it, Harden feels the heat from that. Now he feels like he needs to beat them and the referees.
And, its going to be tougher for him now. After all, the refs are taking away his “safe space.”