James Harden Rumors

Keerthika Uthayakumar: James Harden committed 7 turnovers & made 6 field goals in Game 1, the third time he's had more turnovers than made shots this postseason. 29th time in his playoff career.

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Vivek Jacob: Ja'Kobe Walter says that both Donovan Mitchell and James Harden had encouraging words for him at the end of the series and that they liked how he plays. Says it meant a lot to hear future Hall of Famers be so complimentary of his game.

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Over the past several years, according to team sources and those close to Harden, there has been mutual interest in a reunion.

ESPN

As fondly as they still regarded Harden, there was a wariness about how he would affect the development of Sengun, Sheppard and Thompson. "We're not really looking for a heliocentric player, as great as James still is," one team source said. "We want to develop Reed, we want to develop Amen and we want the ball in Alpy's hands." As another said, "We weren't going to put the ball in [Harden's] hands, so why would you trade for James if you're not going to give him the ball?"

ESPN

Danny Cunningham: #Cavs take down the Raptors 114-102. Jarrett Allen picked a good time to have the best playoff game of his career. He had 22 points and 19 rebounds. Mitchell had 22, Harden had 18 and Cleveland's dominant 2nd half sends them to the 2nd round. Game 1 is in Detroit on Tuesday.

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Cavs Notes: James Harden now has 3 steals tonight and has moved past Larry Bird (296 STL) for the 8th-most steals in NBA Playoff History.

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Law Murray: James Harden has played in a Game 7 four times now since leaving Houston He lost the previous three and they wound up being his final postseason appearance with the Nets, 76ers, and Clippers

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NBA Courtside: Michael Porter Jr thinks James Harden is the most unstoppable offensive player of all time: “He changed the game. Him and Steph changed basketball completely. In his prime, people were guarding James from behind him. I’ve never seen that, ever.”

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Donovan Mitchell scored 11 in the fourth quarter and finished with 24 points, but shot 11-of-26, including 2-of-10 on 3s. Harden was 5-of-14 shooting for 16 points. Mobley was probably the Cavs’ best player Friday, finishing with 26 points and 14 boards. His desperation 3-point try out of the timeout after Barrett’s shot at the buzzer hit off the front of the rim. “I don’t think Donovan, offensively, played well. I didn’t play well,” Harden said. “I don’t think it’s about that. The best players and stars aren’t going to score 30 every game. I think for us, it’s doing the things that’s necessary for us to win.”

New York Times

In the first two games, James Harden carved up the Raptors’ defense with his pick-and-roll brilliance. In those contests, the Cavaliers had a 121.1 offensive rating in Harden’s minutes (the average offensive rating this postseason is 111.0). Credit to the Raptors, though, they weren’t just going to stand there and fall victim to Harden-ball. They used their defensive versatility to flip the script on him. In Game 1, the Raptors had RJ Barrett on Harden, Scottie Barnes on Evan Mobley, and Poeltl on Allen. Meanwhile, Game 4, those assignments were Barnes on Harden, Poeltl on Mobley, and Barrett on Allen. This adjustment is meaningful because Harden wants to go at Poeltl in pick-and-roll with Allen as his roll man, since Allen is a superior screener and finisher to Mobley.

essentiallysports.com

Josh Lewenberg: Barrett on the altercation with Harden: “I take everything as disrespect. Don’t walk over to our bench and pick the ball up. James Harden is a guy I have tremendous respect for… but who cares right now.”

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"The whistle that OKC gets. You know, I saw Shai had [17 or 18] free throws one game," Green said on the latest episode of his podcast, "The Draymond Green Show." "I I saw all of that. Quite honestly, Shai is great at drawing fouls. He uses your leverage against you. He has mastered the art of drawing a foul. If you watch them, most of them are fouls. And when I say most, I'm talking 90-plus percent of them, they do be fouls. Like he has mastered the art of drawing a foul to the level that James Harden had the art mastered before, but in a different way. "He's mastered the art of it. For a great scorer, I think that's a great thing to master, and he's done that. Now, some of them, I think back in the old days, officials would see that and be like, 'I'm not calling it.' And I think that's the frustration that some people have is it seems that he gets so many of these calls and just some of them the way they look, the way they happen, officials just, they wouldn't used to call it. Especially in the playoffs, they wouldn't call it. And so I can understand the frustration. However, I do think a lot of them be fouls."

NBC Sports Bay Area

HoopsHype: Among All-Stars, James Harden now holds the NBA record for most playoff series played without ever being swept. I guess that's something.

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NBA Courtside: Joe Johnson compares James Harden playoff struggles to Lamar Jackson: “They scrutinize James because they know the situations he’s been in the past during the postseason. So everytime he’s in the postseason they going to watch. It’s kind of like when you look at Lamar Jackson and know he’s going to be great during the regular season. But hell, in the post season can he win us some games? Can we get to the Super Bowl? It’s similar to that” (Via @NightcapShow_)

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