No one on the Utah Jazz is using the word ”stop” when referring to what they’ll try to do to James Harden in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals on Wednesday night after the Houston Rockets‘ star scored 41 points in a Game 1 rout.

They’re simply searching for ways to slow him down a bit after he’s averaged almost 36 points a game in five meetings this season.

”He is a (heck) of a player so it’s going to be tough Isaac Yiadom Color Rush Jersey , but we feel like we can just try to make it a bit tough on him for the whole (time) he’s out there,” Utah’s Joe Ingles said.

Harden made seven 3-pointers in Game 1, leaving the Jazz focused on limiting him from long range.

”Just make him a driver,” rookie Donovan Mitchell said. ”He loves getting back to that 3. They got comfortable in the first half and they went up 30. So just being able to make them uncomfortable and not let them dictate what we do on defense. Make sure we dictate what they do.”

Coach Mike D’Antoni isn’t concerned about anything that the Jazz might throw at Harden on Wednesday and believes the only thing that can keep Harden from a big game is, well, Harden.

”There’s no answer. He’s seen it all,” D’Antoni said. ”Now, he might play bad and that’s because he’s human. But there’s nothing that you can conceivably come up with that can stop one of the best offensive players ever.”

Harden led the NBA in scoring in the regular season by averaging a career-high 30.4 points a game and ranks second behind LeBron James this postseason with 31 points a game.

Houston’s Trevor Ariza, a player known for his defense, has the task of guarding Mitchell in this series. He was asked what he would try if he had to guard Harden. There was a long pause before Ariza let out a loud sigh and said with a laugh: ”I’d figure out a way to slow him down.”

But the veteran is happy to be playing with Harden and not against him.

”I’m glad I don’t have that problem right now http://www.redskinsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-pernell-mcphee-jersey ,” he said. ”I wouldn’t tell them what I think. I would let them try to figure it out on their own.”

The top-seeded Rockets expect to see a different team than they did in Game 1 after the Jazz had only about 36 hours between the end of Game 6 against the Thunder and the start of this series.

”I think a couple days’ rest will help them and we’ll get the best they’ve got,” D’Antoni said.

The Jazz refused to use fatigue as an excuse for their poor performance in Game 1, but they did admit that they were feeling better about this game with a little bit of rest. Mitchell said having two days to break down film and work on their game plan has also been beneficial.

Despite trailing by double digits for most of Sunday’s game, the Jazz don’t seemed daunted or discouraged entering Game 2.

”A lot of people have been hitting me up saying: ”Try to keep your head up. It’s only Game 1,”’ Mitchell said. ”And my head was never down. I don’t think any of our heads were ever down. It’s just one game out of a long series … I think being down 0-1 last series and seeing how we came back and responded definitely gives you a sense of more hope than if this would have been the opening round.”

The Jazz will try and even the series without starting point guard Ricky Rubio, who sat out Game 1 and is out indefinitely with a strained left hamstring. The Rockets believe Rubio’s absence changed things for Mitchell. He scored a playoff-high 38 points in Game 6 to lead Utah to the win before scoring 21, which were his fewest of the postseason, on Sunday.

”It makes Donovan handle the ball more than they would like,” Ariza said of Rubio’s injury. ”He’s their dominant scorer at this point so when he has to handle the ball and get everybody involved in the game it kind of takes away from him scoring the ball all the time or being aggressive all the time.”

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His numbers are ordinary. His name is not.

And his potential, that’s still to be proven.

A player who averaged 5.2 points and 2.9 rebounds per game in his lone season of college basketball Mike McGlinchey Color Rush Jersey , primarily as a backup for a team that didn’t finish with a winning record, wouldn’t ordinarily seem like much of an NBA draft prospect. But in this case, the player in question is Kostas Antetokounmpo – who believes that he is ready to follow his All-Star brother Giannis into the league.

On Thursday night, he’ll find out which NBA club agrees.

”I feel like when you do a sport, when you do something, you want to be the best at it,” Kostas Antetokounmpo said. ”Since I was little I wanted to be an NBA player. So it’s about time.”

Maybe so, but unlike his brother – the Milwaukee star who might be an MVP candidate for years to come – Kostas Antetokounmpo’s game is nowhere near the elite level.

”He can be really good,” Giannis Antetokounmpo said. ”He has a lot of things to work on. But I think he can be really good if he gets with the right team and tries to get better every day.”

The 20-year-old Kostas Antetokounmpo struggled to remain a big part of the rotation at Dayton in his one college season, starting six games early in the year but also playing less than 10 minutes in six others. He had a big game off the bench late in the season to help the Flyers beat Saint Louis Tre'Quan Smith Color Rush Jersey , and after that game Dayton coach Anthony Grant pointed to that as the sign of what Antetokounmpo can do.

”That’s what he’s capable of,” Grant said, ”when he puts his mind to it.”

The good news for Kostas Antetokounmpo is this: He knows he’s nowhere near a finished product.

He’s 6-foot-10 with long arms, his standing reach extending just 10 inches shy of the rim. But he’s only 195 pounds, needs to work on his strength and missed basically half of his free-throw tries last season.

”I know that I’ve got to let my body get stronger,” he said. ”I’ve got to get my weight up. I’ve got to work on the way I read the game, and my moves.”

If he makes the NBA, Kostas would be the third Antetokounmpo brother to reach the league. Besides Giannis, there was Thanasis – who appeared in two games for the New York Knicks in 2016. And there’s a fourth one on the way, that being 16-year-old Alex Sam Darnold Jets Jersey , someone who Giannis and Kostas both predict might be the best in the family.

So soon, Alex will likely deal with what Kostas is dealing with now – inevitable comparisons to the more-famous brother.

Kostas and Giannis are built similarly, with their long, lean frames and almost neverending reach. They sound alike in some ways, but both insist that they do not play the game the same way. It used to be difficult for Kostas to carry the label of `the next Antetokounmpo,’ he said, though over time he thinks he’s been judged more on the merits of his own game.

”Every good player coming up, they’re compared to somebody,” Kostas Antetokounmpo said. ”So I’m used to that. It makes me work harder. If they compare me to a top-10 player in the NBA, I don’t have a problem with that.”

Kostas Antetokounmpo said he expects to immediately contribute at the NBA level Keon Broxton Milwaukee Brewers Jersey , based on the way he can run the floor and his penchant for being able to defend – especially around the rim. He said he tries to emulate not his brother so much, but more along the lines of Kevin Garnett largely because of the way he defended.

He has no idea yet where he’s going to get picked, and some mock drafts have him sliding to the second round.

He insists that won’t matter.

”I feel like I can be an NBA player,” he said. ”I think a lot of teams see me and they see a kid that works hard, a kid that can become a NBA player. First round, second round, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m going to do what I can do and try to get better.”

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