On Wednesday, March 5th, the Detroit Pistons fell to the Los Angeles Clippers 12-115 on the back of a huge 50-point game from guard James Harden in the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
Harden carried a hobbled Clippers team to victory behind 50 points on 14-24 shooting and six three-pointers to go with five assists. Harden outdueled star guard Cade Cunningham, who fought back at the former MVP with 37 points and 10 assists.
Although Harden’s game was praised for a team with many of it’s top scorers out, Piston’s head coach JB Bickerstaff offered both praise and criticism of Harden’s big night. Though he was quick to congratulate him, he also made a sharp jab to the officials of the night to credit Harden’s performance. In a post-game interview, he attributed Harden’s success last night to referees allowing Harden to get to the free-throw line:
âGive him a ton of credit,” Bickerstaff said. “But if youâre not allowed to put your body on him legally and heâs allowed to shoot 20 free throws, youâre not going to be able to guard him.”
Bickerstaff is alluding to a major part of Harden’s game, which is getting defenders into foul trouble by baiting them into shooting fouls. This is reflected by him going 16-20 from the line, and forcing defenders to hesitate to get physical, allowing Harden to get space. This is reflected by the number of fouls Detroit committed, with Cunningham committing 5 and center Jalen Duren fouling out of the game after playing 26 minutes. While the strategy isn’t illegal, it’s directly tied to the official’s in-game judgment.
This is something that has followed Harden throughout his career, to the point where the NBA cracked down on foul baiting. Since the rule change in 2020, Harden went from not averaging double-digit free throw attempts to averaging less than since. Whether or not the strategy needs to be amended further by NBA rule books is up for debate, but the act itself has obviously been a focus of Bickerstaff’s ire.
This was the last matchup between the Clippers and the Pistons, who tied the season with one a piece. The Clippers next host the New York Knicks on Friday, March 7th, and Detroit will play again on Saturday, March 8th on the road to face the Golden State Warriors.
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