James Harden Calls Out Teammates to Step Up Against the Warriors

During Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, James Harden went off for 41 points, but the Houston Rockets still came up with an L at home.

Part of the reason could be the fact that Harden was out there making plays by himself and not getting his team involved. In fact, the Warriors dared him to go left and straight to the basket. Even though that worked in the first quarter or two, it wasn’t the right game plan against the Warriors, who had Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson going off on the other side of the court.

Isolation play is definitely not something that the rest of the team could get behind, considering this isn’t just another regular Western Conference opponent. This is the Warriors, who you can’t make mistakes with.

Eric Gordon said this after the last game:

“I definitely would like to get the ball more for me to be aggressive and get good looks. Offensively with everybody, we really don’t get real good looks. … We can’t isolate as much against a good defensive team. I don’t care who you are. We have some of the best isolation players out there. But against a team like that, it’s going to be too tough.”

In a talk to the media, he said he needs his teammates to step up and he can’t do everything himself. He also said the team needs to play better defense to contain the firepower Dub Nation constantly throws at them.

So, how are his teammates supposed to step up when The Beard hardly passes the ball and is doing everything himself? If anything, between him and Chris Paul playing hero ball, it’s hard to get Gordon, Luc Mbah a Moute, Trevor Ariza and whoever else involved. There’s not enough passes to go around when they play isolation.

It feels like there’s a rift inside the locker room in Houston about how the offense runs and it’ll be interesting to see how they react for Game 2, especially if this is how Harden feels compared to the rest of the players.

Warriors with the sweep?

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