Kevin Durant injury: grade 2 MCL sprain + Tibial bone bruise

Anthony SlaterVerified account
@anthonyVslater
Warriors beat writer for the San Jose Mercury News/Bay Area News Group. Formerly: Thunder beat writer for The Oklahoman

 

Correction:

All hail King James Harden, greatest ever. Will win MVP and Finals MVP this year.

 

Still waiting for Harden to really meaningfully show up in the play-offs.

For me, he has been extremely disappointing in the play-offs.

 

Should the Rockets now tank and try and get the 8 seed??
Lol...jk

22 games left for GSW and a 3 game lead in the loss column over Spurs.
Spurs could catch them, but still seems unlikely. Spurs have 24 games left, and even if they play those winning 85% of their games (which translates to a 70 win season and is better than their current 78% win %), they still lose 3-4 of those games.

Which means the Warriors would have to lose 6 of their final 22.
Which just doesn't seem likely.

As noted, the craptitude of the West 8 seed this year really works in their favor. Not that the Rockets as the 8 seed last year were anything special (or the Pelicans the year before that), but it is really a cake walk this year against the 8 seed, whereas the 7th seed could legitimately be dangerous.

From Rockets perspective nothing changes. They need to get and stay hot in the playoffs, and they need interior help still.

 

He was mostly solid in 2015. He had an overall very good series vs the Mavs. He was terrific against the Warriors in Games 1, 2, and 4, inexplicably no showed in Game 3(along with the rest of the team), and had the disastrous record turnover debacle in Game 5. The Clippers series is where his rep took a hit. He was very good in Games 5 and 7(he got a triple double despite being sick in Game 5), pretty good in Game 2, but sucked in Games 1, 3, and 4(again along with the rest of the team) and was on the bench during the historic comeback in Game 6.

 

I never root for or feel good about injuries. Karma is a fickle b**** and I would hate it if Harden or any other key player on the Rockets would go down with an injury (and we know from the past how we get more than our share of injuries).

 

I don't understand this at all. "Extremely disappointing"

Please refresh your memory with at least a glimpse of his playoff boxscore stats in 2015

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hardeja01/gamelog/2015/#pgl_basic_playoffs::none

 

Nobody wants to face us in the playoffs.

 

Oh I understand that. Their biggest strength was "strength in numbers" but that isn't there. They traded depth for top tier quality.

They still have lots of top tier quality, just not depth. But I think they can overcome this.

They will have to learn to play without him tho and build on the prior years chemistry. Than have to switch it up and reintegrate Durant back in for the playoffs and change chemistry again.

That's where it will hurt a lot because they have still been trying to find their on court chemistry.

 

There is more to it than stats, but looking at your boxscores, -20 +/- in an elimination game. I don't remember the -20, I remember Harden sitting on the bench while Josh Smith and Dwight Howard worked a miracle. Then there's the 12 turnovers in another elimination game. "Extremely disappointing" might be a bit harsh, but to say he brings 110% to every playoff game would not be accurate IMO.

McHale didn't make adjustments to make the game easier for Harden. That wont be the case this year. We'll see how things go.

 

I want to beat the Warriors as much as anybody. To take advantage of a team's shortened roster is the correct move. But to be happy about a players injury is WRONG. If you are indeed happy he is hurt, I would not let you watch a game at my house.

 

So, you just look at the elimination game and the comeback game....okay. And if you are going to talk about Josh and Howard Miracles...then at least give Corey Brewer and TJones credit. Brewer scored 15 points in the 4th, and TJones scored 7 in the 3rd to start the comeback. But yeah, go ahead at place Howard ahead of them. You not including them, just means to me your memory of all the playoffs might be a little off.

Harden was great in Game 1 and 2 vs GSW that were really close (yeah, yeah, the slip), and of course the lone W. Little more help in those first 4 games and we might beat them. And he had plenty of other big games.

Admit it, you don't mind ppl forgetting his great playoff games in 2015 (which were plenty) in order to continue to place more emphasis on his bad games.

 

Curry will only get better and back to his normal Durant-less self? I honestly just think the Warriors get better without Durant right now. Allows Curry to be more free with himself and Klay to be more involved. In a way, I wouldn't be surprised if Curry is happy in an obviously sad way. He gets to be 2K Curry again?

 

Uh, I've watched every Rockets play-off game Harden has played... he has showed up fine against weaker competition... Mavs.... but didn't show me much against the Clippers, Portland or GSWX2....

If you've watched the James Harden era Rockets and thought, "Wow our leader and potential MVP has really elevated his game in the play-offs and lead us well".... well idk what you're watching.

 

Yea, the Mavs were a dumpster fire and he didn't show up much at all against Portland, LAC or GSWX2 IMO... a couple of good performances but mostly bad when he was needed most.

 

looks like a good summary and illustrated:

http://instreetclothes.com/2017/03/01/understanding-kevin-durants-grade-2-mcl-sprain/

 

That's a little unfair. Harden was not good against the Blazers in 2014, no doubt. And he was equally good and terrible against the Clippers in 2015. But he did show up against the Warriors in the WCF for the most part(again aside from Game 3 and the turnovers in Game 5). Did you watch the 4th quarter of Game 2? He did everything he could to will the Rockets to victory. Yes, he slipped on that final possession, but had it not been for a blown call a minute earlier where they gave the Warriors the ball even though they knocked it out of bounds, it may not have even come down to that.

 

I'm not saying he has been terrible in every single game.... I'm just saying it's mostly been underwhelming.

In what series can we point to and say, "That was a great series by Harden" - uh... not Portland... not LAC... not either GSW series.... the Mavs were a total joke when we met them...

It just hasn't been there for the most part.

 

I do think it's fair to call a spade a spade, as you have done. Extremely disappointing is overboard. But hoping for more consistency is a fine criticism.

Unfortunately, this is another area where the whole team talent thing comes into play, yet won't really be discussed later on when analyzing careers. I mean, recall that in Game 1 vs. the Clips that year, for example, the Rockets were starting both Jason Terry and Terrence Jones, and had Josh Smith and Corey Brewer both come off the bench shooting 3-12. Prigioni actually played pretty decently that game, but we're still talking about Pablo Prigioni getting 20 minutes. Out of 240 minutes, half were played by those 5 guys.

And, not to mention, while it all blew up the following year, I think Dwight's "act" was already a problem. As a fan watching it, you were already cringing at Dwight's game... EVEN when he had good games.

All of which are excuses.

Harden will always suffer from consistency problems until (i) offensively he either gets more consistency on his 3 point shot or learns to pick up the speed of his game just a little bit when that shot isn't falling... because when it is falling he can dance around out there for 20 seconds for all I care, he's unguardable then, but when it isn't falling he needs to act quicker, move the ball quicker, etc. to allow the offense to help him create more open looks; and until (ii) he can be a better more consistent defender... because even if he has a crap offensive game, if he cant contribute out there his +/- won't suffer as much.

Unfortunately, as amazing as he is, I don't think he will get there... which is ok. Because as you note, he does have the benefit of having the system helping him this year, and having a lot more talent around him... EVEN though there's no other amazing talent around him.

I think we'll see a clunker or two from Harden in the playoffs. Hopefully the team can pick him up.