7 games in a row for Harden with less than 5 turnovers. Longest such streak last season -- 3 games. Longest such streak the season before -- 4 games.
I would like to say "the Chris Paul effect" but his handle is visibly more tight. Last season defenders had a solid chance of striping the ball from Hardbe when he was pressed. Now his handle hardly ever gets disrupted be I'm pretty sure Paul probably helped him. Probably showed him some drills.
He's also not trying his 'bring the ball super low through the paint in a sea of defenders and go up through the contact and hope for a foul' move nearly as often, which would lead to many no-calls and turnovers. Still, with even that, he has cut down on a lot of the impossible passes he would try as well.
Its two major things: 1) less full court passing attempts. I guess it was a point of emphasis that the risks dont worth the potential gain. 2) Not trying to get fouled as much. He doesnt expect to get the calls so hes consentrating on finishing at the rim.
I always thought Harden 14-15 was better than 16-17. This Harden so far this season obliterates 14-15.
Swear there's a stretch in almost every single win this season where Harden decides to take over & hands all the momentum over to us. It's not always dramatic like yesterday night or against the Blazers either. Sometimes it's in the 1st quarter or even 1st half, to close the 3rd quarter etc Reminds me of Curry in 15/16 where he seemed incapable of having a bad game (until the Playoffs) & would always go on these individual crazy scoring runs. The 14/15 Harden who was the reason we single-handedly outperformed our SRS that year is back but a million times better now.
He plays defense and his playmaking and court vision is light years better and not to mention he is now an elite three point shooter.
he was number 1 at 31.63 LeBron was number 2 at 31.37 http://insider.espn.com/nba/hollinger/statistics
Harden’s average game score now sits at 25.6, which is higher than any guard over the past 30 seasons not named Michael Jordan. That includes Stephen Curry from his unanimous MVP campaign in 2015-16. http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...bron-james-rockets-backcourt-dominated-week-7