The inbounds before, the bench reaction, Draymond Green's kerfuffle, and the inbounds after are all parentheticals to me. I don't care. James Harden played hero for a minute, and I want to talk about it.
People, for some reason, love to talk about James Harden's leadership qualities, or lack thereof. Many of these accusations are, although I hate to say it, are completely fair. He does tend to shrink in moments. He has entire games where it looks as if he's checked out. The best I've heard it described was on back on Grantland, and I'm butchering it, but there is something about James Harden's eyes when he makes a mistake.