Volume 5: Unrivaled

Harden's biggest privilege was his unlimited green light on the court. Whenever he wanted to dominate the ball, no one could stop him—not even D'Antoni. Still, he made brilliant contributions in other areas. His passes out of double teams were accurate and timely, and he always found the open teammate without committing a single turnover. On defense, he rotated aggressively, helped, and collapsed into the paint, finishing with 4 assists, 5 rebounds, and 1 steal—a Green-style triple-single. During the break, Van Gundy said, "Harden has become the Rockets' primary offensive option. The ball has to go through his hands every possession. Even on possessions where Paul runs a pick-and-roll, Harden brings the ball up first before passing it to him. He needed a full eight shot attempts and four free throws just to score 10 points. He used up a lot of possessions and was terribly inefficient." "Really? Then judging from the game, D'Antoni's thinking is clearly wrong..." Bzzzzz— The connecting unit had always been led by Paul, and Paul was in especially good form today. With flaws in the Warriors' interior defense, he should have been able to give them a few "surprises." After succeeding on one possession, though, he went a long time without touching the ball. Then he seized two more chances, converting one, after which there were no more pick-and-roll possessions targeting Lopez. But D'Antoni had his own unspeakable difficulties. If he could have followed his own plan, Paul would naturally have handled the ball and relentlessly targeted Lopez and Markkanen. Unfortunately, he did not have the final say over everything. Rockets fans were baffled. Why wasn't Paul taking advantage of Antetokounmpo's injury to relentlessly attack Lopez? They could understand Zhang Yu's choice, but they still could not suppress the frustration and resentment rising in their