It might be a while before James Harden lives that one down.
There were many factors behind the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 22-point fourth-quarter collapse in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, but one stood out in the immediate aftermath of a 115-104 New York Knicks win.
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That would be Harden, who is no stranger to playoff clunkers in his lengthy career. Tuesday, however, was the first time he was the protagonist of one of the worst collapses in NBA playoff history.
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During the Knicks’ game-flipping 44-11 run, Harden went 1-for-5 for 3 points with zero assists and one turnover. That alone is bad, especially when you’re asked to run the offense with Donovan Mitchell seemingly limited from playing his usual role.
Where it got truly brutal, however, was on defense, as the Knicks hunted Harden like a wounded pheasant.
Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson was asked after the game if he thought of benching Harden on defensive possessions in the final minutes of the game. He stood by his player. His response:
“No. He’s been one of our best defenders in these playoffs. I trust him. Smart. Great hands. Didn’t think about that.”
Meanwhile, here’s what Knicks head coach Mike Brown had to say in the other interview room:
“There is no secret, we were attacking Harden.”
It gets particularly brutal for Harden when you break down the numbers, as the ALL NBA Podcast did on social media. The fourth quarter and overtime saw Harden positioned as the screener defender on 21 on-ball picks. The Knicks scored 1.6 points per direct action on those plays.
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They also scored 1.9 points per direct action in the nine times they got Harden to switch into isolation. That is basically what your average NBA player would score in an unoccupied paint.
There’s really no diminishing how much of a fiasco this was for Cleveland. Losing Game 1 is one thing. Blowing a double-digit lead is another. But to blow Game 1 like that, with Harden fulfilling his own playoff caricature, Mitchell possibly limited in crunch time by injury, and Atkinson seemingly asleep at the wheel — he called a single timeout in the 30-8 Knicks run that sent the game to OT — is the kind of game that makes the rest of a series feel like fait accompli.
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It will be on Harden and the Cavaliers to change that in Game 2 on Thursday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).
