KOTH: Durant vs Harden vs George

[Milbuck]

LOL at James Harden playing defense for the first time since 2012 being newsworthy. What a ****ing joke.

[UK2K]

LOL at James Harden playing defense for the first time since 2012 being newsworthy. What a ****ing joke.

He's looking good

[BrainDead]

James Harden is a very good offensive player.

[Milbuck]

He's looking good

It's a shame his newfound defensive effort is gonna be wasted on a playoff-less season or first round exit.

James Harden is very good at playing the system when games don't matter.

Fixed.

[UK2K]

It's a shame his newfound defensive effort is gonna be wasted on a playoff-less season or first round exit.

Fixed.

Time will tell.

If he can even slightly improve in his third year as a starter, he's going to be dirty.

[TheReal Kendall]

It's great to see these guys put their egos on the line.

[Smook A.]

It'd be great if Harden puts effort into defense like this for the regular season and especially the playoffs

[KungFuJoe]

It's irrelevant. Harden has always been a decent post defender. It's how he got his "rep" back when he was guarding Kobe...all Kobe wanted to do was post Harden up and that's the only part of defense Harden is good at.

Harden's weaknesses are that he loses his player on the move, he's a HORRIBLE close out defender (worst in the league probably), and he has the lateral quickness of a tree stump. None of those were exploited in this 1-1-1 matchup.

[LoneyROY7]

Harden was eating KD's lunch in that video.

Get ya weight up, Durskinny.

[Rocketswin2013]

[QUOTE=UK2K]JAMES HARDEN:

More than one media member has joked that watching Rockets guard James Harden apply effective full-court on-ball pressure during scrimmages this week has been like a mirage. Whether Harden is looking to put Houston's early postseason exit behind him or to set a tone as one of the roster's Olympic gold medalists doesn't much matter: it's infinitely more entertaining to watch him playing at max effort than any other alternative.

Harden, Durant and George engaged in a series of one-on-one post-practice games on Wednesday, and the match-ups gave Harden a chance to remind the captive audience how skilled he is at creating shots. Harden's full bag of tricks -- ball fakes, head fakes, stutter dribbles, step backs, fallaways -- was on display, and he found his share of buckets against the two longer, taller defenders. Like George, Harden should benefit from being one of many scoring options for USA rather than a do-it-all alpha dog, and his connection with Durant, his former teammate, should be evident early and often throughout the tournament.