Nikola Jokic says Denver Nuggets 'locked in' on defense to stymie James Harden
Thursday 21 November 2019 08:25, UK
Nikola Jokic said the Denver Nuggets were 'locked in' on defense as they snapped the Houston Rockets’ eight-game winning streak with a 105-95 victory on Wednesday night.
Rule No 1 in defending James Harden: Throw different looks at him.
Rule No 2: See above.
At least, that was Denver's highly effective blueprint.
They played smothering defense on Harden and the Nuggets beat Houston to snap the Rockets' eight-game winning streak.
It's not easy making things difficult for Harden, who has seen just about every defensive scheme imaginable.
"You have to have rules against James Harden," Denver coach Michael Malone explained. "You can't play him with your standard defense. Great player defense is required for great players.
"He is a master at drawing the foul, Malone said. "They changed NBA rules because of James Harden. He is one of those guys that when you're watching film, it's like watching a horror movie. He is that talented."
The Nuggets tried a little bit of everything to contain Harden, even rolling the 7ft Jokic out high along with another defender.
The variety of schemes did the trick, as much as it can against Harden. Houston's star playmaker finished with 27 points, snapping his string of eight consecutive games with 36 or more. He was 8-of-16 from the floor as the Rockets were held under 100 points for the first time this season. They were averaging an NBA-best 119.5 per game.
"We were locked in," said Jokic, whose team is 7-0 this season when keeping an opponent below 100 points.
Still, Jokic found it funny that his team was being lauded for stopping Harden.
"That is crazy when a guy scores 27 and it's bad," Jokic said. "We know he is going to score. He is going to be aggressive. Just make it harder and try to be there. Just to give them different looks."
It worked this time.
"They just double-teamed every possession," Harden said. "They got lucky. They got away with one. We didn't execute how we needed to."
The Rockets struggled from three-point range, hitting 12-of-38. They did make at least 10 for a 71st straight game dating to last season.
Russell Westbrook finished with 25 points on 8-of-22 shooting and Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds.
"We had open shots," Westbrook said. "We just didn't make them."
Will Barton scored 15 points, while Torrey Craig and Juancho Hernangomez provided boosts off the bench as Denver's reserves outscored the Rockets back-ups by a 32-21 margin.
One of the key sequences came in the third quarter when Paul Millsap blocked Harden's shot and Barton turned it into a dunk on the other end. That energised the Pepsi Center crowd and sent the Nuggets on a pivotal run that sealed the win.
