Cavs must help the helper against James Harden on Wednesday

The Cleveland Cavaliers will face off against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday, and that means they will need to help the helper in regards to James Harden.

It’s clear that the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ defense is struggling. The young backcourt of Darius Garland and Collin Sexton is having their issues on that end, and that’s not shocking.

Coupled with that, the Cavs do not have legitimate rim protection outside of reserve 5 John Henson, who is still getting back in the swing of things after constant injury issues since coming to Cleveland after being traded here by the Milwaukee Bucks as a piece involved in a three-team trade involving the Washington Wizards.

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So who is next up in this brutal stretch of the schedule for the Cavaliers?

The Houston Rockets will be on the docket Wednesday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, and that means the Cavs will be going against superstar James Harden.

Harden is currently on a ridiculous run, and is leading the NBA in scoring with 38.0 points per game, as noted by NBA.com. This would make the third consecutive season where Harden would be leading the league in that category.

The Cavaliers will need to throw multiple bodies on Harden, such as some being Sexton, rookie wing Kevin Porter Jr. and perhaps Matthew Dellavedova.

Obviously, defending Harden is next to impossible individually for most players in the league, and the Cavs are going to likely struggle there. That means help will need to come early and often in this one.

Throughout the game, I’d think Cleveland head coach John Beilein and associate head coach J.B. Bickerstaff will want to trap Harden in pick-and-rolls and/or isolation.

Harden’s still a passer with very good vision, as evidenced by him having a robust 7.5 assists per game, but he is prone to turning it over, too, with the offensive burden he has and he’s averaged the most turnovers per game this season, according to NBA.com.

The Cavs won’t want doubling Harden to lead to Russell Westbrook attacking downhill at will, but minimizing defenders being on an island with Harden is understandable for good stretches to give Cleveland an opportunity to rotate to contest against three-point shooters and take their chances.

Again, Westbrook is a really dynamic driver/playmaker due to the attention he draws in the paint, but Westbrook turns it over at a high rate, too, as he’s posted the third-most turnovers per game on average in 2019-20, again, according to NBA.com.

Plus, Harden’s ability to shoot it from way deep, get in the lane and of course get fouled so frequently should cause Cleveland to send help to him early and often to aid Porter and others.

From there, the Cavs and pieces such as Cedi Osman, Garland, Kevin Love, Jordan Clarkson and Alfonzo McKinnie will need to communicate properly to rotate to shooters after kickouts from Harden.

I know the Rockets have a great roller in Clint Capela, and have capable three-point shooters with the likes of Eric Gordon (though he’s starting slow in 2019-20 only hitting 28.4% from there, according to NBA.com), Danuel House Jr., Ben McLemore and from the corners, really, in P.J. Tucker and Austin Rivers. Rivers is reportedly out Wednesday, though, according to the Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen.

Houston is always going to have its players fire away at will from deep, and they are again leading the league in three-point attempts and makes per game, as demonstrated by NBA.com.

That being said, the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t have individual wing defenders like David Nwaba (who reportedly signed with the Brooklyn Nets this past offseason) last season that can realistically bother Harden, so Bickerstaff and company need to have help come to Harden early and often.

From there, Cleveland will need to help the helper.

The Cavs need to be more efficient on the offensive end than they have been in recent games and move the ball better, too, though.

Cleveland has lost seven straight to bring their record to just 5-18 in the 2019-20 season, and they have the league’s third-worst offensive rating and have the second-lowest assist rate, as both shown by NBA.com.

Again, the key to this game on Wednesday against the 15-8 Rockets is trying to limit Harden’s free throw chances (which is easier said than done), and not allowing him to have whatever he wants as a scorer against mostly young players, such as Porter.

If the Cleveland Cavaliers do that and help rotators to Harden by communicating their switches off the ball properly, they’ll have a better chance of being competitive.

More than seven points out of Kevin Love, who has been in the thick of trade rumors in recent days, of which The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor also provided further detail on Tuesday and reported that Love would prefer a trade if he were dealt to the Portland Trail Blazers, would be nice, too.

We’ve heard the trade rumors surrounding Love before, though, and it would be seem to be anything but set-in-stone that Love will actually be dealt.

Anyway, Love has had just those seven points in each of the Wine and Gold’s last two games at the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics, which were both blowout losses, though the Cavs played much better against the Celtics on Monday overall.