{"id":157832,"date":"2021-01-19T08:57:21","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T05:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nets-got-sweet-glimpse-of-a-new-james-harden\/"},"modified":"2021-01-19T08:57:21","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T05:57:21","slug":"nets-got-sweet-glimpse-of-a-new-james-harden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nets-got-sweet-glimpse-of-a-new-james-harden\/","title":{"rendered":"#Nets got sweet glimpse of a new James Harden"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Nets got sweet glimpse of a new James Harden<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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This was the sequence that defines James Harden, the good and the bad, the beautiful and the brazen and everything in between. Here, in the space of five seconds, maybe six, was enough for his detractors to jump on, enough for his supporters to fall behind, both sides able to state their cases in a grandiloquent basketball debate.<\/p>\n

There were 41 seconds left in the fourth quarter of this wildly entertaining game<\/a> between the Nets and the Milwaukee Bucks at Barclays Center. Khris Middleton had just given the Bucks a 123-122 lead, the fifth lead change in the prior two minutes, the teams seesawing and pingponging and challenging each other in the most important minutes of the game.<\/p>\n

(Neither of these teams will ever be confused with the Bad Boy Pistons or the Riley\/Oakley\/Mason Knicks of the \u201990s on defense but, goodness, both of them know what they\u2019re doing on the other end of the floor. Can we fast-forward to a best-of-seven sometime in May, please?)<\/p>\n

Harden had the ball behind the 3-point line, still 12 seconds left on the shot clock, but this is what he\u2019s done for years: in the final minute, with a whisker of space, he\u2019s going to launch. He missed. For half a second, it felt like the Bad James storyline might carry the day, that the Bucks would steal this and run to the airport.<\/p>\n

But in that half-second, Good James answered.<\/p>\n

Good James grabbed the offensive rebound. Good James instinctively flipped the ball to Kevin Durant, a step behind the 3-point line, beautifully wide open.<\/p>\n

Splash.<\/p>\n

\"Nets\"
James Harden<\/figcaption>
for the NY POST<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was Nets 125, Bucks 123. It would end that way, Middleton\u2019s 23-foot 3 at the buzzer rattling in and out. Harden would walk away with a full linescore \u2014 41 minutes, 34 points, 12 assists, six turnovers \u2014 and the Nets would walk away with their most impressive win of the season. Not a bad night in Brooklyn for the new kid in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s who I am,\u201d Harden would say later. \u201cThe good thing about me is, I\u2019m not a one-dimensional player. I can impact the game in many ways. If Kevin Durant is open at the top of the key I have to get it to him and let him do what he does best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Nets coach Steve Nash: \u201cJames knows what he\u2019s doing out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were still some remnants of Bad James, of Houston James, of the one-man band whose Rockets teammates often seemed like superfluous annoyances. Old habits are hard to break. Long-standing muscle memory doesn\u2019t always vanish just because you want it to. There were forced shots. There were forced passes. He copped to all of that.<\/p>\n

But there was also the game\u2019s closing sequence. There was the miss-rebound-assist to Durant that sealed the game, but there was also a splendid feed to Joe Harris the possession before, one that set Harris up for a 3 that turned a 121-119 Bucks lead into a 122-121 Nets lead.<\/p>\n

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