We've been "in the box" for a long time. Obsessed with beating the Warriors but Harden has really been unbeatable except for the Warriors. James is a different monster ever since last season's playoffs. The defense was incredible tonight. You don't want to guard him. You don't want to be guarded by him. You don't want to be in a shoving match for a rebound with him. Steals, blocks, assists. One of the greatest scorers ever. Trusting his teammates more than ever before it looks like. Your move Lebron.
Speaking of fakeness from the East... Look at LeBron dropping an easy western game in (remember) his first western playoffs. James harden has had better teammates but with any sidekick even temporarily as good as AD he’s never had issues in the first round. Let’s see how Lakers respond, but clippers are enemy #1 it seems.
I have to make special mention of Hardens dominance over the pace of the game in the face of an all time great PG. He orchestrated the offense perfectly in terms of making choices on offense and even when he wasn’t handling, he was making sure the play is the right one for the team. Defense was good, elite for a few possessions. A great start to the series, but I’m not surprised by Hardens surprises anymore.
Is James motherf*ckin Harden really going to drag us into the second round without Russell Westbrook?? I think he will. I don't think anyone else can do that. Kawhi, Lebron? lol Please.
Just a reminder for all the haters on this board (repost from another thread): For the playoffs, Harden is averaging 32 ppg, 9 apg, 8 rpg, 2 spg, and only 2.5 topg. He's doing it on 60% TS% with a 29.0 PER, and also leading the NBA playoffs in assist percentage, win shares/48, box plus-minus, and defensive box plus-minus. His team was a 54-second-Danuel-House-collapse away from sweeping a series against a very good team, despite a shorthanded roster that many people thought had no chance of winning. And imagine if his teammates could make open 3s. Of all the places I waste far too much energy defending Harden, I didn't think I'd ever feel the desire to do it on this board after these games...
I’m fine with defending harden, I do it a lot on Twitter. But y’all are like the opposite in here. His TS% always gets used instead of his actual FG%... and that’s been the real problem with him in the playoffs as opposed to the reg season.
TS% is objectively a far more meaningful stat than FG%, whether it's November or June. This is something everyone should have learned by now. If you're a sh!tty FT shooter or 3pt shooter, you can shoot 55% from the field and still be a far less efficient scorer than someone that shoots 42%, and TS% will measure that. Let alone the volume of shots with which Harden does it, and the degree of difficulty on those shots due to his high gravity. This is why he is the single most effective offensive player of all time. But all anyone wants to talk about is a couple bad turnovers late in a game that we only ever even had a chance to win because of Harden. At best you could argue that eFG% is worth bringing up, and Harden's number there (54%) is also quite good as a result of the fact that he can't buy a FT this series.
You understand we do that because FG% is pointless right? You know Harden has had several MVP caliber seasons (by the Rockets-hating media's standards) on a low FG% right?
And that FG % goes down significantly in the playoffs which is why you guys only use TS%. Kawhi Leonard’s FG% doesn’t go down in the playoffs. And yes I know he’s been on better teams/carries less of an overall load... I’d still take him shooting over 50% over a stat that helps harden because he shoots a crapload of Ft’s d and is good at them. It helps in games like the last one when he had 5 attempts
Player 1 shoots 13/30 fg, 7/20 from 3 - 43% fg and 35% from 3 Player 2 shoots 15/30 fg, 2/5 from 3 - 50% fg and 40% from 3 Which of these do you think is better?
The guy who shoots 3’s because he accounts for more points which helps hardens. Y’all are always gonna tailor the argument towards James. James is incredible, how incredible he is goes down a notch in the playoffs. It’s not debatable.
I'm not tailoring this towards any specific player, I'm trying to help you figure out why fg% is a bad number to look at. This has nothing to do with "helping" any player.
for any superstar. Or are you saying more points only help harden and the rockets but not other super stars and other teams because less points benefit them? LOL
his 3 point field goal percentage is what people should be looking at...that consistently goes down every postseason...Dort has been defending him well on drives, but out at the 3 point line, I really don’t think Dort has been doing anything worth talking about...Harden is getting his standard looks and missing, but him missing from 3 has been the case almost every playoffs Harden will never have a high FG%...he takes too many threes the last 3 playoffs he has shot 56, 50, and 48% from 2 point range, and this series so far he is shooting 61%...in order to have a high FG%, he would basically have to play like Russ and cut out the 3 completely, but then he’d be scoring less points per possession...that, or be on a super stacked team like KD in GS the main thing I value about FG% is that the refs won’t give him free throws to win the game, so his low FG% is an issue when we absolutely need a bucket, especially when 90% of the time the shot he’s gonna take is a 30% three however, overall, TS% is a far more valuable tool than FG%
Eric Gordon is shooting like 29% from three. Even though he’s taking 8+ a game. Want to talk about efficiency, lol. He scoring an insanely bad 21.12 points per 100 possessions when he shoots a three. In other words his ORtg on shooting threes is 21.12. Who the f gave that dude the green light? If Harden wants to jack threes and miss... fine. EG should t have that luxury. Not if he’s shooting 20%. why we talking about Harden so much when EG is the problem here? it’d be one thing if he just wasn’t playing well. He’s not playing well... while STILL pretending that he is playing well and jacking shots. Those are insanely wasted possessions. Even worse, their defense imbeciles worse in those wasted possessions. if MDA decides to go with Russ, Harden and EG to start I’m going to pull out my non existent hair. Out that dude on the bench and let him come in against the other teams bench and get comfortable.
A logical, objective argument. I’m fine with TS% argument. But we’ve seen too many times we did in the second half, when he’s drained because he’s just jacking up 3 after 3. Either way something isn’t the same. We’ve seen multiple 50 point games in the playoffs so far, granted from guys that are on healthier teams... yet the guy everyone touts as the best scorer ever hasn’t gotten one? We can love harden and be honest about his playoffs. He’s underrated in the playoffs by the media and overrated on this board
