James Harden has struggled against Portland — while he has scored 45 points total he has been very inefficient, shooting 14-of-47 through two games (29.8 percent). Wes Mathews and Nicolas Batum have done a good job of contesting Harden’s shots. He’s driven the lane 20 times in the past two games but is shooting just 38.5 percent on those (according to NBA.com SportsVU Camera data).
When asked after the game about his offensive struggles, Harden only wanted to talk about the team needing to get defensive stops and slowing LaMarcus Aldridge. You can see the questions on the video above starting about :38 seconds in, they reportedly come from NBA.com’s Fran Blinebury. When Harden dodges the question and doesn’t answer it the first time, Blinebury rephrases it and asks again. Then again. Harden won’t play that game.
But when the media scrum broke up later Harden came back at Blinebury, as reported in the Oregonian (via The Big Lead).But when his media session in the Rockets opulent locker room ended, Harden went back at the reporter, asking if he had ever seen a player not play well before. The reporter answered that the struggle seemed unusual for Harden and was coming on a major stage, the playoffs.
The two went back and forth for a while, with Harden asking the reporter if he’d ever seen a basketball game before, then demanding to know whom the reporter was. The exchange got testy enough that team officials stepped in to usher Harden out.
As he left the room, Harden called the reporter “weirdo.”
This sounds like frustration misdirected. That happens. Everyone will let it slide. Nothing to see here, move along.
But I think this speaks to where the Rockets are — Harden is right to call Game 3 a must win. Portland won Game 1, Houston adjusted, then Portland won Game 2 anyway. Harden knows he has to do more. He’s frustrated and rightfully so.
He just needs to take that out on the Blazers instead.