James Harden has never been known for his speed, but a guard of his caliber will almost always take free points when an opponent presents them.
He knows that on a bum hamstring, there’s no way he’ll be able to get up the court before the defense catches up, and even if he could, the re-injury risk on a dead-on sprint like that would seemingly be quite high.
In fact, he hasn’t attempted a layup of any kind since returning to the lineup for Game 5.
He’s attempted only one catch-and-shoot 3 in this series because he’s so used to being able to generate all of his looks off the dribble.
All of this is to say that a less diversified Harden easily could have been useless for the Nets until fully recovered from the hamstring injury that kept him out of the first four games of this series.
Those aren’t quite the dreaded long 2’s Morey teams typically avoid, but once Harden gets that close to the basket, he typically tried to go all of the way to either finish with the layup or draw a foul.
Those floaters have become a key part of his offensive repertoire, and without his typical athleticism, they proved essential to the limited success he found against the Bucks in Game 6.
Timing was again critical on his next floater attempt because Antetokounmpo was right on his tail.
The 2017 Spurs in particular found success dropping their big men and defending the pick-and-roll with only two players, taking away his kick-out passes and daring him to shoot in the mid-range.
In truth, it would have been used frequently in this series even if Harden was healthy to combat Lopez’s drop coverage.
If his teammates do their part in Game 7, that floater could help carry the Nets into the Eastern Conference finals.