Did James Harden prove tonight that the voters got it right?

Harden missed triple-double by 1 turnover, today.

 

Harden has played well beyond the first round lol. Don't bring up Tmac in this thread please, it's already a terrible thread that will have many asking what kind of fan trashes their 25 year old player after a playoff loss.

 

that is just exeggeration. Both Mac and Howard have injury history to win more than just one hypothetical championship together.

And we are being hypothetical here

 

I've been supporting Harden all season long, but there are certain patterns and mannerisms about him that I feel I really need to vent out about.

Harden is a streaky shooter and I've been noticing that streakiness extends beyond the realm of shooting. It affects how he plays in general. I really think he plays well when there is a positive momentum going for him. As much as I hate to admit this but he's not mentally tough enough to face the adversity and overcome it. He's just not that type of guy. So, yeah I absolutely believe losing MVP race has affected him mentally and psychologically big time. And some would argue if he's that mentally weak, then he doesn't deserve MVP in the first place, and I kind of have to agree.

Bottom line : He is not Hakeem Olajuwon. There is no such fire in him. He plays well when everything is going well for him. I repeat : He is not very good at overcoming adversities. That's why I was very nervous about his performance tonight, and damn was I right.

 

We need more stir it up. That's how this team gets going. Stirring it up, together. Did he make the Stir it Up gesture once tonight? NO. Gotta have more stir it up gestures if we want to win.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtbQPZMLX70

 

Why was the trainer working on his left shoulder before the game? Is he nursing an injury?

Overdependence on Harden biting us in this game. When he couldn't get it going, we sink. We also had no interior game. Dwight negated by Jordan (huh?); Josh Smith and TJones no match for Blake.

 

Clown poll, bro.

He did give his detractors ammunition tonight, but one game is one game, and it wasn't just him.

No way we play that poorly again.

 

this//// 100% agree with u

 

idk but most of you gassed yourselves up and watched the "olajuwon dominates robinson" video on youtube thinking harden would come out like that.. harden himself said it wasnt motivation.. starting to believe this is playoff harden..

 

Dallas kept all the games close even with two starters out. Rockets are not that good. Rockets don't play team ball when Harden is in the game; so its easy to defend them. Harden is not that good against playoff teams. Who cares if you make game wining shots against non-playoff teams. You can't do it against playoff team.

 

Don't you mean all-time first round PERs in playoff history...

 

This is a stupid thread, the MVP is a regular season award.

Has nothing to do with the post season at all.

 

I don't want to hear anymore mvp chants for him until he steps up and shows leadership.

 

Thing about that is Hakeem was like 32 then...

Harden is 25.

Jordan won his first championship at 28.

Harden still has A LOT of maturing to do. Lebron said something after his team lost, something about either coming out of the fire stronger or weaker. That's pretty much what happens. Great players are tested, they fail, some times at points people laugh at them and call them chokers or whatever nonsense they can think up. It's all about how they respond.

 

Playoff Ending Results
0-7

 

tonight didn't prove anything. even if harden had a great game and we beat a cp3-less clippers, it wouldn't have proven anything either. steph had a great season, was actually better statistically than harden post all-star break and his team won 67 freaking games for crying out loud. is their roster better than ours...yes? but they also crushed teams like they should have with a better roster...at a historic level. id bet anything cf would be freaking out at anyone else for mvp if the roles were reversed (harden doing a ridiculous 24/8 on 67 ts% post all star break, incredible +/-) and we won 67 games.

this doesn't mean harden is any less a player...people are too dense to realize that. harden had an mvp level season. BUT this year he wasn't the mvp. im not a hater. its just what it is.

 

No. If the MVP award means most valuable player to one's team in the regular season, then I still think Harden carried the greatest load this season. (Now, what "MVP" actually means is a total mystery, but I've already made plenty of other posts about my thoughts on that.)

What's happening in the playoffs now means nothing to the MVP award that was voted on at the end of the regular season. It shouldn't mean anything to the players, either, who should all have their eyes looking straight forward towards that championship trophy.

What's happening to the Rockets is that they so heavily relied on James to pull them through this season of awful injuries that nobody, including James, was prepared for the huge differences between then and now. Howard is back and playing like a beast. He's commanding a much more focal point in the offense. Teams are doubling James and successfully keeping him from penetrating. The hacking strategy is being used liberally, killing momentum. Every other team is upping their game or going home. Fouls are being called differently. The Rockets didn't prepare themselves for all of this, and they look generally lost out there. James is very lost, because he had a very clear job in the regular season, and now it's turned all upside down. Now, they SHOULDN'T be lost, but that's what they are.

That still does not take away from what Harden did bringing the most injured team in the league to the 2nd seed in the hardest West maybe ever.

 

Tonight proved only that if James Hurden cannot even win a Regular season award then it is probably safe to say he won't win a lot of postseason accolades soon.

He is the regular season king

 

20/5/12/4 on 46/50/83 shooting and he is a got damn scrub to some. Awesome

He made some bad mistakes. Probably a good 4 more than he usually does on a game to game basis, but on the whole he made the right play. Their defense was geared to let the rest of the team go off and it worked. He was no doubt too sloppy but very,very far from terrible.

Harden has had MUCH worse playoff games as a Rocket. Harden was pretty low on my list of problems tonight. We missed an ungodly amount of bunnies and WiDE open 3s. No doubt this series is going 6 or 7.