Rockets' Harden on hacking Clippers' Jordan: 'Personally, I don't like it'

While DeAndre Jordan is having a laugh at the Houston Rockets' strategy of fouling him ad nauseam, someone else who lives at the line isn't nearly as amused.

Rockets star James Harden, who took 170 more free-throw attempts than any other player in the regular season, admitted after Sunday's Game 4 loss that he's not a fan of intentionally fouling the Los Angeles Clippers center.

Game 4 saw Jordan set a playoff record for most free throws in a half with 28, and he would finish 14-of-34 from the line on the night with 26 points and 17 rebounds. The strategy makes sense at times during the course of the game, with Jordan, a career 41.7-percent free throw shooter, likely to produce only a single point on a given trip.

That's a low-value proposition for a robust Clippers' offense, but it also allows the Clippers to set up their defense on every ensuing Rockets possession, and it slows the game down. It's not hard to imagine players having difficulty staying in the flow of the game with such frequent stoppages.

"I mean, personally, I don't like it," Harden conceded. "But I guess different coaches have their different philosophies on the game."

The strategy could be hampering Harden, though he's averaging 24.5 points and nine assists on 66.2-percent true shooting in the series, not far off his respective regular-season marks of 27.4, seven and 60.5 percent.

Beyond the impact on offense and how aesthetically displeasing it is, the strategy also extends games a great deal in real time. Games 1, 2 and 4 have lasted 2:42, 2:58 and 2:53, respectively, making this an exceptionally long series. As a comparison, Sunday's game between the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers - a tightly contested game that included a long review delay late - lasted 2:34.

Harden, meanwhile, gets his free throws the old-fashioned way: by forcing defenders into hacking him because they can't guard him. That may also slow the game down, but it's Harden leveraging an incredible skill and forcing the defense to react, not eschewing defense to exploit a weakness.