Ball Scrutiny: 3 Reasons Behind Rockets' Downfall Against Raptors

James Harden’s 38 point, 11 assist double-double explosion ended up in vain after a 16 point loss against the Toronto Raptors earlier. 

Harden Flies High for a lay up against Valanciunas

Shocking right? A single man contributed near 40 points yet still ended up as the loser? What’s worse is that Rockets all of a sudden fell of their place on the top spot. What could be the reason for this shocking loss?

1 – Starter Imbalance

Well, at some point, one player exploding too much in scoring can also be a negative factor. Of course anyone could not score such a huge number without holding the ball much of the time. Individual and team rhythm would fail to establish if the leather isn’t moving around well. Harden scored 38 but a co-starter Ryan Anderson who played 31 minutes finished with only 9, imbalance is completely obvious.

2 – Wright, Miles played huge off the bench

Backing up the huge 27 point game by Demar Derozan, Raptors had two huge guns off the bench, CJ Miles and Delon Wright both with double figures. Miles dominated the rainbow country with 6 triples finishing with 19 big points whilst Wright with 14 points finished with a flawless 100% field goal shooting. In contrary, the Rockets bench only scored a combined 23 points which is very insignificant to match Raptors bench production of 50.

3 – Too Much Hustle for the No. 1 Spot

Rockets are in the race to the top spot while Raptors ain’t in that much. This is the root of the Rockets collapse, Harden won’t hustle that much if it weren’t for the pressure. Harden held the ball too much and took almost a third of the total team attempts 25/79 but hit only 8. Thus it can be concluded that there is an excessive aggression on Harden’s part which resulted in a sorrowful defeat instead of carrying his team to victory.