James Harden incredibly called off double team, played amazing defense on Giannis Antetokounmpo

There are a lot of questions coming out of the Milwaukee Bucks’ Game 5 loss to the Brooklyn Nets, a game in which the Deer had a big lead in their hands and blew it as Kevin Durant put together a historic performance.

One of them will be from a moment with under two minutes to go and the game tied.

At 104-104, the Bucks came down the court and Giannis Antetokounmpo found himself matched up with James Harden. That’s the same Harden who didn’t look like himself all night coming back from injury, shooting 1-of-10 from the floor, the same Harden who is a better defender than you think but who’s also a good six inches smaller than the Greek Freak.

As everyone’s noticing after the fact, Harden called off a double-team and handled Antetokounmpo, who missed a turnaround jumper:

still cannot believe this wave off happened. pic.twitter.com/HGPrwUm9Nj

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) June 16, 2021

It's sad how Giannis can never score on Harden in the clutch

Harden really called off a double-team too, the disrespect pic.twitter.com/sUuhng2N9c

— arian (@arxanii) June 16, 2021

The other big question there is why Giannis didn’t take advantage of the mismatch — what about a drive to the hoop?

It’s a reminder that these two had serious beef in 2020, and maybe Harden dug down extra deep to prove his point from last year:

Harden just waved off a double for Giannis in the post LMAOOOO pic.twitter.com/vHYqVIbLaN

— ً (@FreeSwisho) June 16, 2021