For those saying Harden is choking in the playoffs...

I feel Harden hasn't been aggressive enough at times but also the team around him is poorly put together and is too dependent on him. Harden is a great player but not a transcendent player like a Lebron, MJ, Hakeem, etc. so he'g gonna need better pieces around him, mainly better shooters and a real starting pg. Harden has to all of a sudden turn into a transcendent player to will this team as configured to championship contention against the caliber of teams left in the playoffs at this stage. I just don't think he has is capable of that. He's just not wired like a transcendent player.

 

If Austin Rivers can take it to Dwight, Harden should be able to take it to Jordan, if he's under the rim...

But here's another scenario, where Jordan isn't at the rim. Harden opted to initiate contact and hook him, to draw a foul. Well, he lost the ball out of bounds, no foul call. Jordan didn't have a good start there, so Harden should have been able to get ahead of him enough to lay it up. If Jordan bumps him or Barnes reaches, then that's more likely to be called.

Stop trying to figure out how to get a call and just go. All the reaching will start again, once they see he's being aggressive and scoring. Sometimes, it's like he's trying to dish out the hit before they hit him...good strategy in a street fight, but not in basketball.

 

As others have said, stats doesn't mean everything. Especially in Harden's case.

 

lol..how about in the 4th quarter when the game is on the line like game 2..or game 5 closeout game against Dallas. Or the countless clutch shots and 4th quarters during the regular season to get us to the playoffs. If that's your true opinion then I feel sorry for your mother on this eve before mother's day.

 

I give him his due in those 2 out of 8 playoff games. I am just arguing those 27 ppg in this playoff run are not as impactful as those numbers would would lead one to think.

 

Harden is playing great, the way he should. Other than Dwight, no one has played better yet. It's on the rest of the team's players to start showing up for this series.

 

he's not chocking nor playing great. the truth is in between and i think the right word to use here is "inconsistent". i think he chocked in game 2 against Dallas and game 1, game 3 against the Clippers (game 3 stat looks great but mostly came from garbage time) so that's 3 out of 8 games that he's had sub par performance. other than that, he has been OK to great and i think it's pretty safe to say that us fans have the right to expect more from our superstar.

 

It isn't just DeAndre Jordan that's stopping him.. Defenders from our shooters are collapsing onto him and forcing him to pass up.

 

I don't see why people are having such a difficult time grasping this. Harden isn't setting the world on fire, but he's hardly playing bad.

Ariza? Brewer? Josh? Jones? I mean...can ANYBODY give Harden and Dwight some help?

 

Here come the "analytic" folks spouting out "numbers":
SEEEE THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE. MAURY BALLZ ANALYTICZ SAY HARDEN NOT A CHOKER!

I swear some of you aren't even watching the game.

 

That's the point. Not bad. Not great. He is just there. Maybe I got spoiled with #34. I think harden would flourish if we had another "leader" on this team. Someone who would be solid every game and bring swagger. This team has zero swagger. In the 90's dream was that swagger. Hell elie was that swagger. Even Cassell. When they walked on the floor you knew they would leave it on that floor every night. I don't feel that with Harden. He has skills and without him we would be kissing the ass end of the lottery. No question. But does he have the stones to lead. That remains to be seen. He is only 25.

 

What are you talking about? Noticing that a player's box score stats are exactly the same between regular season and playoffs is hardly Morey-ball analytics. It is just facts.

 

when your team shoots 35% on uncontested field goals and the opponents shoot 58%, you're probably not going to win. Harden's shooting was almost all contested field goals, and he created most of those uncontested shots, you're right, he hasn't been as impactful as those stats would lead one to think, he has been more impactful, his assists should have been about 15 in the last game if the brick force could hit an open look at even a reasonable clip.

You need to stop living in the past where the rules allowed teams to create iso situations that weren't perpetually beset with traps, staggered doubles and all sorts of defensive strategies to force the ball out, his biggest problem is that he needs to force it in, because if he doesn't, the rest of them can't do ****. It'd be nice if when the defense overloads he could throw it to someone who could then punish them....

 

Why is it that everyone he (allegedly) guards is having a great series?

No one has any issue with Harden on offense, but he is not playing much defense and it is KILLING the team on that end.

Your leaders need to lead and play on both ends.

DD

 

Is Matt Barnes stellar play really bothering you that much?

 

This and the fact that they need to play as a team...

The biggest difference is the fact that LA is playing team basketball and the Rockets are playing streetball.... They will never win that way...

Also, stats that don't tell the whole story.. Everyone wants to use this stat and that stat and he never tells the entire story... Why I hate stats..

T_Man

 

Those numbers are fools gold

They do not tell you about his lack of aggressiveness. Neither do they tell you about his piss poor p***y defense allowing scrubs like Rivers to blow by him repeatedly and light him up

 

Mental toughness gets you through referees blowing their whistles, opponents going off on you, etc.

You return again and again to take the punishment because you want to be the best player in the NBA. You don't look to your teammates to bail you out. You look to take over the game to help your teammates so you have the best chance to win.

If you have to be told repeatedly to be aggressive in the playoffs ...

 

Do we expect too much out of our superstars?

I'm starting to think Houston is just spoiled from the Hakeem days. I'm gonna put this in bold so that no one can miss the point I'm making: we will never have another player as dominant as Hakeem Olajuwon.

I remember when McGrady was a Rocket, he got trashed for "not doing enough" in the playoffs. It didn't matter what kind of numbers he put up. That second Jazz series, he basically played by himself in the elimination game. He put up 41 points and still was criticized shortly afterwards for not scoring enough in the fourth quarter.

The same is happening to Harden right now. When you're winning, you look like the hero (see Steph Curry) regardless of what kind of numbers you put up. When you lose, it doesn't matter what you do - you still get criticized.

Y'all need to chill out. The problem here isn't Harden and Dwight. I think it's a combination of coaching and our lack of a playmaker outside of Harden. I don't see how this issue STILL hasn't been addressed this is a problem we've had since the freaking Yao/Mac era.

Speaking of Dwight, good lord. He's not getting as many shot attempts and minutes as last year but he's actually managed to increase his rebounds per game AND blocks despite that. I'm very impressed by what I'm seeing out of him - and not enough people are talking about that.

 

Yeah, exactly, go make a poster out of someone instead of doing the work to get to the cup then passing out to a Brick Brother.