Moe Harkless was uncharacteristically aggressive in this game. He was aggressive to the point where the aggression could not have solely come from within him; we know with certainty that he doesn’t have that extra switch inside him that would allow him to be so scoring-focused for an entire game. I’m thinking either Terry Stotts, or one of his teammates, ripped Harkless a new one for being so passive in games.
If it was a teammate, my money is on C.J. McCollum. That guy has already shown a willingness to tell his teammates things with no regards to their feelings (see: Festus Ezeli Peptalk). Maybe the “tough love” approached worked on Harkless. Or maybe him and Jusuf Nurkic, who was diming him all game, had a psychic brain connection that lasted for all of one game before breaking. That would be another explanation for why Harkless looked like he was on the court to play basketball and not like he was on the court because he got lost on the way to the popcorn stand.
By the way, I would have loved to see the matchup between two non-scoring small forwards in Kyle Anderson and Moe Harkless, but Anderson was unavailable for this game so the much-vaunted battle was postponed until next time. Rumor on the streets is that Anderson’s heart rate slowed down so much that he turned into a literal ice cube. Please join me in praying for Anderson right now.