Let's be real: Replace Harden with Tmac and we sweep that series or at worst go 4-1

Harden has no balls and no heart. He defers to other players (who aren't very good) in crunch time, or tries to game the system by drawing fouls instead of getting a good shot. I cannot count how many times in that series he wildly bricked some ill-advised off-balance three pointer where it was clear that the goal was to draw a dubious foul rather than actually make the shot. We saw it over and over on drives as well -- flailing around to try to get the whistle instead of making finishing the priority and taking the whistle if it happens.

I did not even watch Game 6 (it was already a blowout when I got home from work), but Game 5 showed why Harden can never be trusted. Both teams were floundering horribly at the end and could not make buckets to save their lives. That is the time when your star player needs to attack the basket and attack relentlessly to get consistent points, rather than taking heavily covered 3s.

Tmac on the other hand was a Rockets legend who gave it his absolute all until his knee was essentially "bone on bone." Even injured, and with "shooters" like Rafer Alston to pass to, he put the team on his back and got the absolute most out of squads that were essentially him surrounded by D-League players (remember, Yao was so bad defensively that the Rockets actually won more when he was injured and replaced by Dikembe Mutombo's desiccated corpse . . . T-mac was the heart and soul of those teams.

In closing, I submit these two videos that show the difference between Harden and Tmac vs. the Spurs in crunch time:

On one hand you have T-mac the stone cold assassin doing anything he can to get his shot off and will his team to victory


On the other hand you have Harden getting shamefully and embarrassingly blocked from behind by a 40-year-old after not trying to get a good shot because he didn't want the pressure of taking that shot anyways (remember he deferred to Eric f'n Gordon for the other key shot)

 

Those were much less talented Rockets teams and the Spurs had their legends in their prime. Not a good comparison. Point me to where Tmac quit in a playoff elimination game.

 

If putting up 27-7-7 is quitting then what did James Harden do last night? Outside of Yao and Tmac, the entire rest of the team scored 16 points. David Wesley and Scott Padgett were playing big minutes. It was literally Tmac, a center who can't guard anyone, and a bunch of D-league guys.