As fouls mount, James Harden puts focus on himself, not officials

“There were some questionable [calls], but some I’ve just got to be more smart about,” Harden said. “I take the blame on that.”

Houston Rockets star James Harden has seen his share of controversial foul calls in three games since the NBA’s restart at Disney World.

Harden was whistled for five fouls in each of Houston’s three games at the NBA “bubble,” and he had four before halftime in Sunday’s huge win over Milwaukee. Due to those fouls, the eight-time All-Star and 2018 MVP has only played 34 and 33 minutes, respectively, in his last two games.

Some of the whistles have been controversial, like the minimal contact in transition against Damian Lillard in Tuesday’s loss that led to Harden’s fifth foul. Nonetheless, rather than lashing out at officials, “The Beard” said at Wednesday’s practice that he’s focused on what he can control.

“Last night kind of got me in trouble, just because I couldn’t be as aggressive as I wanted to,” Harden said. That lack of aggression may also be compromising Harden’s willingness to drive on the offensive end, where he’s scored just 23.5 points (on 38.7% shooting) in his last two games. That’s more than 10 points below his season-long average of 34.3 points per game, which leads the NBA for a third straight year.

At Wednesday’s team practice, Harden again made it clear that he was accepting responsibility. Regarding the controversial calls, he said:

There were some questionable ones, but some I’ve just got to be more smart about. I take the blame on that, as far as putting myself in positions to foul. Overall, I’ve just got to be in better positioning, and things like that.

Head coach Mike D’Antoni could have challenged one of Harden’s fouls, including the Lillard play, but he chose not to. When asked about it after Tuesday’s game, D’Antoni indicated that he believed it was a foul.

Even if there was a foul by Harden, an opposing argument could easily be made that Lillard was the one to initiate contact before any infraction from Harden. A similar judgment went against the Rockets late in Tuesday’s game, when a charge drawn by Russell Westbrook against CJ McCollum was wiped away on a replay challenge by Portland — because Robert Covington was judged to have fouled McCollum before that.

Nonetheless, from Harden’s perspective, he seems to be focused on his own issues. It is worth noting that while not as extreme as five fouls per game, Harden did average 3.4 fouls per game in his 61 outings of the 2019-20 season prior to the recent restart. That’s the highest total of his 11-year NBA career. So even if officials are calling the games a little tighter in Florida, that doesn’t fully account for the broader trend.

After switching to a full-time smaller lineup on Jan. 31, the Rockets began relying on Harden even more to defend against larger bodies in the post. To that point, since Jan. 31, Harden’s fouls have surged to 4.0 per game, as compared to 3.2 before (roughly in line with his 3.1 in 2018-19).

As brilliant as Harden is offensively, he must be able to stay on the floor and have the freedom to attack off the dribble to fully maximize his incredible skillset. That will be a clear emphasis for Harden over Houston’s final five regular-season games, as he gears up for the 2020 NBA playoffs.

[lawrence-related id=35596]