DENVER (AP) — Everywhere James Harden tried to go, there was Christian Braun in his way.
For that, thank the personal scouting report offered up from Harden’s former teammate and Denver Nuggets sixth man Russell Westbrook. He passed along plenty of useful tips to Braun about guarding the Los Angeles Clippers’ star.
Closely covered by Braun all night, Harden was just 2-of-8 from the floor and scored seven points in the Clippers’ season-ending 120-101 loss to the Nuggets on Saturday in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series.
It was a sporadic shooting series for Harden all around as he shot 43.6%. After going off for 32 points in Game 1, he averaged just 16.5 points per game the rest of the series.
“James is a tough cover,” said Westbrook, who was teammates with Harden last season. “Christian did a good job trying to make the game difficult on him. I thought he did an excellent job and he has been doing that all year.”
Braun deflected the credit. He said he was able to play tighter defense on Harden because of players such as Aaron Gordon behind him. They were there waiting, just in case Harden broke away.
“I couldn’t pick him up and pressure him all game if I didn’t have the guys behind me that were flying around,” Braun said.
Braun listened intently to the words of wisdom from Westbrook.
“He’s played against James. He’s played with James, so he kind of knows his game,” Braun said. “He was telling me what looks to give him, when to give him this look, when to do this, when to force him right, when he goes right this is what he’s doing. I learned that over the course of this series. I got better and better as we went and the guys and the coaches trusted me tonight. We didn’t want to switch, they kept me on him all night.”
Braun was just as big on the offensive end, too. He had 21 points, including three 3-pointers in Game 7. But it was his defense that earned the most praise.
“He did what he’s been doing,” Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said. “We tried to be a little more conservative once he crossed half-court in the coverage. But then it was on Christian to get through screens and get back in front of him, to maintain our defense. ”
For Clippers coach Tyronn Lue, it was a rough 48th birthday. His team trailed by double digits at halftime and fell behind by 35 points in the fourth quarter.
“Tough loss. Not playing our best game in a situation like this, a lot of emotions,” Lue said. “I told guys to bring it in, one last hug.”
They can take solace in the fact that Kawhi Leonard heads into the offseason as healthy as he’s been in a while. He didn’t make his season debut until Jan. 4 due to issues with his surgically repaired right knee. Harden held things down until Leonard’s return, which Lue applauded.
The Clippers entered the postseason as the league’s hottest team, having won 18 of 21, and Lue was already looking past the disappointment.
“Those two together for a whole season, I think will be tremendous,” Lue said.
Harden, though, turns 36 in August and Leonard turns 34 next month. Is there a level of encouragement the Clippers can continue to build around them?
“I guess we’re still playing at a high level in a sense,” Leonard said. “It’ a hard question to answer right now.”
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