James Harden practicing the night before game 4 @ Toyota Center

4 seasons. the rockets lost in the 1st round 3 years ago but "who's counting"

 

His numbers drop literally every postseason and his numbers in close out games are even worse, including G6 and G7 of last year. Up your play. You can’t regress and have folks feel bad for you.

 

Post #3

 

ahh missed that

 

game 6: 32, 7, and 9 on 10-24 shooting

game 7: 32, 6, and 6 on 12-29 shooting which included 2 threes that he was absolutely hammered on and a waived off 4 point play...that’s 10 potential points that the refs just took away...Harden was poised to drop 40+ in game 7, we all saw how he started the game...he couldn’t beat the corruption

So what are u talking about? Yeah, let’s kill Harden because he didn’t drop 45+ in order to beat a stacked team without his 2nd best player/only other player on the roster approaching All-Star level...

 

Fchowder and his fellow Lin fan troll Lorna malvo not happy

 

That’d be ideal, after all justice has kept pricks like Stockton and Malone from getting one. Tho Jordan ain’t exactly a saint..

 

Stating facts is not killing him. He played below his normal standards in both of those games:

Game 6. You forgot to mention his 9 turnovers. -19 while on the court. 57% TS. 50% eFG.

Game 7. You forgot to mention he shot 2-13 on threes and had 5 turnovers. -13 while on the court. 49% TS. 45% eFG%.

And thats just looking at the box score. Trust me, you don’t want to analyze beyond that. Harden is typically in the 61% TS range, and 54% eFG% range. His efficiency is his main strength. He was less efficient. He turned the ball over more. He was worse. Take off the homer glasses. If he were dominating in defeat he wouldn’t catch as much flack. But he’s typically playing worse. This year included.

 

Proud to say I called it. (See here.) Working on a right-handed floater to deal with the problem of having to switch hands when forced to the right. Harden is always improving his game, but I wasn't quite expecting him to be working on it so quickly, though. I figured it would be an offseason improvement, but that's for people who have smaller cojones than Harden who opts to just learn it and use it in the middle of the playoffs.

 

no sh*t his turnovers will be higher when he goes back to being the only guy setting up the offense while having to drop 30...we saw it the entire 16-17

-19 in a game they lost by 29 points...no one on the team had a positive plus-minus that game...lol, stop reaching

citing TS or eFG for game 7 when the refs are allowing GS to get away with clear and obvious fouls...nah...that’s like bringing up Harden’s 3 point field goal percentage in game 1 of this series as a knock against him...2-13 on threes when he was mauled on 2 of them and the refs took away a 4 point play that he had...their corruption left at least 10 potential points on the board for Harden, so miss me with that

Harden should get criticized for only dropping 32 in both game 6 and a corrupt game 7 of last year’s WCF while going up against an incredibly stacked team while having nothing but role players...man, please...

Harden’s career averages in the postseason with Houston...28, 6, and 7 on 57% TS...so horrible...please list all these current players with career playoff averages that are noticeably better

playing worse in the postseason than u do during the regular season isn’t unique to James Harden...it happens to 2x MVP Steph Curry every year...it was happening to KD before he went to GS...it always happened to Damian Lillard...it happens to many of the game’s top players

 

Right handed midrange shot? Morey, talk some sense to him!

 

a "**** the warriors" pregame day practice from harden? i like it.

 

Better than clubbing night before a game 6

 

Reeko, I see a lot of excuses for why Harden played worse. At least we’ve moved beyond the point of recognizing that he played worse, like he does literally every postseason. Excuse it all you like but the fact is his play routinely dips. You can always list the reasons “why”. Unfortunately this is a results business and no one will have any sympathy for a guy who keeps losing while playing worse than he does in the regular season on a consistent basis. The other top players you mentioned....no one felt sorry for them when they weren’t getting it done either.

 

that would be ultipoopoo you are talking about

 

This.

I've always been about the team first, but Harden has been great for the Rockets all these years. Let's not forget the threadmill of mediocrity pre-Harden.

 

Look, I'm all for getting onto guys for performing below their capabilities in the playoffs. I get it... and honestly, if this were 2015 (when Harden was often spotted at the club after games and the night before games) then I would be right there with the people that do bash him for it.

But the guy has changed. There were stories last year during the Golden State series about how Harden would jump off the plane and go straight to the gym. This year we are seeing pictures of him practicing on his own the night before big games (ones we DESPERATELY needed to win).

He's putting his heart and soul into this. So yeah, his true shooting % hasnt been great in elimination games, and he has the tendency to turn the ball over... but give me a guy that is willing to do whatever it takes to EARN IT over a guy who just wants it handed to them.

 

I like to read more like this.

Did he have practice before game 5?