The Atlanta Hawks are a young, fun team. They lose a lot, but the core of Trae Young, John Collins and Kevin Huerter at least make tanking seem watchable. That isn’t to say that the Hawks aren’t playing for pride, though.
Atlanta lost Tuesday’s game to the Rockets, 121-105. Late in the first quarter, James Harden was matched up one-on-one with Kent Bazemore, and Harden proceeded to work Bazemore with an array of dribble moves.
Harden left Bazemore in the dust and finished the drive off with a runner.
Bazemore, who is not a good defender by any stretch (ranked No. 367 in Defensive Rating for players averaging 15-plus minutes), still felt compelled to explain what happened. Bazemore obviously knew the internet had a great time roasting him for getting contorted by a Harden crossover.
But few NBA players would ever issue a statement on Twitter to explain getting embarrassed by another player. Bazemore, however, did do that on Wednesday.
Bazemore said that he guessed wrong (obviously), which put himself in a poor position to react to Harden’s move.
I’m not all that confident that Bazemore would have stood a chance defending Harden in isolation regardless of what he guessed, but at least the Hawks guard offered his respects to a great move.
Harden scored 31 points in the win. Bazemore had three.
