I didn't want to make a post after yesterday game, coz i wanted to cool down a bit and re watch the game. But i just couldn't shake this feeling. Its game 7 of a series, and our mvp and generational player gets owned by an undrafted rookie that CANT shoot. Its not only his 17 points, less than half his season average for god sake, but its the fact that we needed him in attack mode and he was passive. Last night, we won because our role players stepped up. I know what some of you are going to say, James did the right play when doubled and pass to the open man, and thats great an all, but with the season on the line, if we have to depend on Roco , or jeff green, or Daniel House to save us, we are a bit screwed. I'm not saying those guys are bad, but that's not their job, that's not what they get paid for. There's a reason why guys like kwahi shoot 42 shoots last year on game 7 vs the sixers ( and he missed most). Its because he is ****ing superstar, and he wont delegate his responsibility to take the important shoots, and get bailed by the role players on his team. And its not because he is selfish , its plain and simply because he is better than they are and he is not afraid of the moment. Now some of you, will point at his game winning block, but watch the replay. He is closing on probably the slowest releasing shooter in the nba, for god sake, i probably release my jump shoot a bit faster than Dort. Not only that, this is a guy with no skills to put it on the floor, no time in the clock and nothing else to do. It was great hustle, and a very smart play after, opening his legs to avoid the ball that Dort sends at him. Hes improvement in defense in the last 2 years has been noticeable, but to me, that was not as impressive. You cant leave the fate of a game 7 on the role players hands. Its a super star job, and i feel that James sadly, its not the guy. This is not the first year that he has come short in the playoffs. Just a couple years ago, he got blocked by 97 year old manu. He was a no show in the last game against the spurs. He is great, but i feel in the playoffs he just shrinks. Sorry for the long post. cheers guys, at least we made it to second round.... again
Harden AND Westbrook have a chance to, though. It's too early to say whether or not this duo can get it done.
like Dort wasn’t sitting on 30 points and hadn’t already hit 6 threes before that block... like Harden didn’t score or assist on the team’s final 13 points... like he didn’t make up for his offensive difficulties by making play after play on defense including a block on Schroder with 2:50 left in the game as he drove to the lane in transition for a bucket that would’ve tied the game... when he scored 32 against GS in game 7 taking 29 shots being ultra aggressive while getting screwed by the refs multiple times, u were probably saying he “choked” when he scored 35 in game 6 against GS last year, u were probably saying he “choked” lame ass thread...I give it a 0/10
Harden had a +11.5 net rating in the game. Harden had a +26.5 net rating in the 4th quarter. Because field goals aren’t the only thing that an individual can do to help your team outscore the other team when you are on the floor.
You are talking to brick walls, these guys are so ignorant. I'm sure it is not easy watching a sport they purportedly love but have zero real understanding about how game is played.
Harden single handedly creAted the rockets last 13 points when the offense was sputtering. One has to wonder if this op moron has a agenda or not?
you need some iq to understand it. I agree , is too early, lets hope we can beat the lakers. Sorry, did we won any of those series? welcome to the internet, where people have different opinions and points of view. Agenda? its a bball forum mate, chill out. Ill be happy to eat all my words if we win the championship, in any of the coming years, i just dont see it happening with harden as our main guy.
The role players is the reason why OKC lost. Chris Paul depended on Adams and Dort, and they failed so now he goes home. So... your point just sucks. You think Lebron with bunch of scrubs will win a chip in LA? He runs gigantic campaigns and sets up trades himself to make sure he can get big name players to do all this work so he doesn't have to.
Role players are important clearly. Cp3 is going home also because he couldnt get a basket at the end, and as good as Shai is, he is not ready for the moment yet, maybe later in his career. I dont know if Lebron will win, but he is a primadonna that picks his superstars all the time ( without AD he missed the playoffs). He is still awesome, and in the past hes had a few choking moments ( dallas finals, spurs finals ) , but i think from 2011 he has always been there for the challenge. He wins some, loses some, but i do think he is a big game player now.
Turd of a thread. Take up all that space to write a bunch of nothing. Go outside and get some fresh air. You write like your brain is starving for oxygen..
Kawhi's 2nd FA destination were the Lakers and not the Raps if that can believed....... in case PG can't get out of OKC.
I think what gets lost between this most recent bad Harden shooting game, and Kobe/Kawhi bad shooting games is that Harden had 9 assists. He wasn't a great shooter/scorer but he was still an above-average offensive player when looking at the game in totality. Case in point he had the highest +/- of anyone on the Rockets DESPITE 4-15 FGs. If he did what you're asking, taking 30+ shots no matter what the result is, we would've lost the game and our role players never would have had the chance to be instrumental in winning the game. He checked into the game with 8 minutes left and the Rockets down 3. He scored or assisted on all of the next 12 Rockets points while Westbrook (who did the thing you're asking) went 0-6 FGs in that same stretch. Oh, and he had 2 big blocks including the game-clinching play. Harden played a pretty crappy game through 3 quarters, but he bounced back and had an excellent 4th quarter WITHOUT shooting us into oblivion. That's a big mental bounceback. Now, he's not legend status just yet, still needs to go win a championship, but if you're expecting Harden to score all the points, get all the assists, make all the passes, and not trust his teammates you need to go watch Tennis instead of Basketball. And spoiler alert if we can't trust our key rotation players to make some f**kin shots (RoCo, Green, House, Tucker, Gordon etc) when it matters most we WILL NEVER win a championship. These guys aren't getting paid to just sit around and watch Harden score 100 points. If all you're trying to say is that Harden should have been much more assertive in quarters 1-3 of Game 7 you have a valid point. If you want to say that Harden has struggled often in some of these high leverage games than you have another valid point. But your word vomit of an argument that descends into abject hopelessness based on a game that WE WON and ignores Harden's noticeable improvement is ridiculous. Also, not sure how much basketball you watch but Kawhi takes a lot more shots (even when shooting poorly) because he's not as good of a playmaker. Kawhi tends to turn the ball over quite a bit when forced to make difficult playmaking decisions when the shot isn't there. And last food for thought, Kobe went 6-24 from the field in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA finals. If he had shot anymore, Artest and Gasol wouldn't have been able to save that game.
Harden has difficulty scoring when his 3's aren't falling. His drives takes a lot of energy and speed and it's difficult to execute when the defense just collapses on him. I think he needs to go to the post more, it was working for a it in this series, but he needs more reps shooting jumpers from there.
All your points are valid. I watch a lot of basketball. Im not trying to say he should chuck like a 100 shots or anything like that. That was one of kobes flaws, as he was not as good as a playmaker as James is. My point is not that. I value that he is a great playmaker and dosent force stuff. But its game 7, in games like this, i want him to ****ing shine. To be amazing, to lead us to the win. He is without a doubt, the best player in the court, almost any time he gets inside one ( he is definitely top 5 in the nba, maybe top 3). So when a game like this comes, i want to see him play like that and get a win. Instead we get a very unispired game, hell even he said he sucked on offense.
