Thats pretty much what last year's team was. They won the powerball in Smith and Brewer's games and won 1 extra game in the WCF. Also, the double standard is hilarious. The same crowd uses 2nd round appearances to claim Morey is an unbelievable GM. Lillard has had the better season, its not debatable. Its also one of those things that's beyond the box scores, where the results at the end of the day trump any subjective advanced statistical measures people like aeliottt and lars pull out of their but.
Lol wtf. Since when has Lillard been one of those guys? This is just revisionist history. Lillard's main knock was his inability to facilitate relative to other point guards and his tendency to chuck (which he still does). Oh yeah and his poor defense. All of a sudden because he has a great season and got lucky that CP3 and Blake both got injured preventing a first round sweep or gentlemen's sweep; he's a leader? He's a motivator? What?
I'm really confused overall here though. Lillard has a great game in the 2nd round against the warriors and everyone spazzes out...well not everyone, just the fans that HATE Harden. Harden has TWO great games ON THE ROAD in the WCF and apparently it means absolutely nothing. The man did everything he could to get that split, a few balls bounce their way and Rockets go up 2-0 against the Warriors in the WCF because of Harden. You want to knock Harden for having help against the Clippers last year? Well that's how it works. Hakeem had help from Horry, Maxwell, Clyde you name it. Dame has help. Curry has help. It's a team sport. This is a sweep if Al- Farooq Aminu doesn't transform into a superstar player every playoffs like he does.
Funny thing is Blazer fans complain about his shot selection all the time. Grass is always greener on clutchfans. It went from Paul George, Butler, Thompson, whoever has a good game that night is better than Harden. Watch in the finals "Is Kyrie better than Harden?"
Harden defenders are just like Morey, all they care about is advanced stats but refuse to acknowledge the intangible portion of basketball. Read some of the articles about Lillard or how his teammates rave about his leadership ability. Why don't any of Harden's former players discuss how much of a leader he is. You don't need to be in the locker room to see that Harden isn't a leader and never has been.
And if this isn't enough evidence, Lillard knocked out Harden personally with a team that was less talented 2 yrs ago. He doesn't even have LMA anymore.
I never said Harden was a leader, nor am I expressly defending Harden. Just like I know Tracy was never a leader either. Doesn't mean I gave up on Tracy until he started becoming a trash basketball player and detriment to the team after his knee surgery. Harden isn't at that stage yet. Harden is still a star and building around him is the best chance for Houston. Trading him for a draft pick and becoming the Sixers for the next three or four years is not something I want to endure and Les will fire Morey if he even thinks about it. Its all relative. You best believe if last season our season ended against the Clippers and we had this year play out like it did, I would be all for getting rid of Harden, but he showed his worth against Golden State both series imo.
Lillard knocked out the Clippers but he's nowhere near what CP3 is. Any ways, did you forget Harden's WCF games against the Warriors? Why rave about this Lillard game and not those?
That game is what made me believe. Sadly, all it proved to me was his lack of leadership. Dude could have come out and showed he deserved the MVP, but after things didn't go his way that one game he mentally gave up and proved everybody else wrong. That game you are referencing, regardless of the fact that he turned it over in the end, was my most favorite game of his as a rocket. Problem is, he plays like that every 6 games. I want to be wrong, but after 4 years I'm finally ready to take a clear stance on what type of player Harden is.
Harden balled out in 3 games against the Warriors, then played like he forgot how to play basketball in the other 2 games. This is unacceptable to me. If you want to consider yourself a superstar, you cannot have games where you look like a miserable scrub. It's one thing to miss a lot of shots, but continue to be engaged in games.
Exactly. Portland should trade Lillard because he's a stat monster that can't play defense and doesn't make his teammates better....Hmmm, sounds familiar! Lol. The fact is the Warriors are just great and may not be beaten by anyone this year.
You have to realize every superstar has ups and downs. Kobe had some bad seasons with mediocre success and some great seasons. Harden has had one bad season. It's alright. It'll be fine. If he dedicates himself and comes back with a hunger like he did before then he'll be fine. With the Warriors match up it isn't actually about Harden, it's about everyone else. We are bigger than them but our bigs play soft against them, especially Dwight. He gets punked by Bogut pretty much every time. Harden needs help, he needs someone else to carry the load, he can't be expected to be Jordan every night and have any consistent success. He's played like 300 more minutes then the next guy, went nearly entire games playing without much rest. He's been overplayed by any standard this year and over relied upon. As for Lillard, he's so underrated that he's overrated. Every time he has one of these games people go "Oh man, that guy is so underrated!" but when his shot is not falling he offers next to 0 to a team. Leadership, intangibles. Sounds like Battier, the intangible superstar. That don't mean much. Man people here would be killing Harden if he had this game, they just would. 9/30? You know they would. "Ballhog, stat chaser, hero ball..."
