DETROIT — James Harden‘s postseason struggles continued on Thursday night.
Harden shot 3-of-13 from the field, missed all four of his 3-point attempts, and committed four turnovers in the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ 107-97 loss in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals to the Detroit Pistons. It’s the second straight game in this series and fourth time in nine postseason games that Harden has finished with more turnovers than field goals.
However, Donovan Mitchell continued to express confidence in his backcourt mate on Thursday night, repeating that he believed Harden and the Cavs would “figure it out.”
“He’s James Harden; we’re not sitting here worried,” Mitchell said Thursday night, after snapping out of his own scoring slump with 31 points. “He’s going to figure this out.”
The Cavs are going to need him to do it in a hurry. They trail 2-0 in the Eastern Conference semifinals after losing both games in Detroit. The series shifts to Cleveland for Game 3 on Saturday.
Cleveland is going to need a more effective performance from Harden. They made a bold midseason move to acquire Harden, trading their 26-year-old former All-Star Darius Garland to the LA Clippers to acquire the 17-year veteran to help the team get over the postseason hump.
But on Thursday night, Harden went scoreless in both the first and fourth quarters. He was effective from the free throw line, knocking down all four shots, but he couldn’t create space on his step-back jumper or get past a swarming Pistons defense to get into the paint consistently. After scoring eight points in the second quarter, Harden took two shots in the entire second half.
The Cavs were outscored by 15 points when Harden was on the floor Thursday, the worst plus/minus of any player who appeared in Game 2.
“Just missing shots,” Harden said. “Second half, I think I took two shots, but the ball was moving. We’re getting better shots. So just picking and choosing my spots and figuring out what works, what doesn’t work, for the betterment of the team.”
Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson took the blame for Harden’s lack of involvement in the second half. With Cleveland trailing at halftime, Atkinson said he devised a game plan intended to push the pace and thought Harden got lost in the process.
“He was doing a great job getting off it, but our offense isn’t at a point now — when him and Don get off it, it should come back to them at some point,” Atkinson said.
“We got to look at it. Can’t have our Hall of Famer taking two shots in the second half. I’ll take that one.”
And yet, when Harden did try to score down the stretch, he committed a critical turnover. With the Cavs down six with 33.3 seconds in the fourth, Harden tried to drive past Tobias Harris, before he lost the ball into the hands of Ausar Thompson.
Mitchell took the blame for bringing Thompson into the play and acknowledged the rest of the Cavs can do a better job playing around Harden.
“You think of just little things, spacing, trying to get him easier looks,” Mitchell said. “We got to do a better job of running as well, whether it’s spacing or put him in different positions. We’ll have that conversation. We’ve been having that conversation. At the end of the day, we’re going to figure it out.
“Even with last possession when he lost the ball, I could have stayed in the corner with Thompson. So just little things like that. We’re just getting on the same page. We’ll be fine. We’ll figure it out.”
