I can’t believe this topic is actually a thing. First Take sports culture has officially taken over the public dialogue for the worse.
Your argument is based on ignoring efficiency, and you're questioning my objectivity? Is this what you've been reduced to? You should be ashamed of yourself.
You understand there is a thing called defense, where Harden was excellent that series. He was the leading scorer while having the 4th best DRTG. But that doesn't fit your narrative. Who was the best player on the Rockets in Game 5?
eric gordon might have a case. good for him. role players like ariza and tucker are never better than stars just because they make their shots that were set up by the star. those are pretty similar, but cp3 gets the B-level defenders while harden absorbs the best of the defense. if we're going to talk about steph making things easier for his teammates, this is the hidden affect of stars like harden/lebron (when he was with kyrie/dwade). they do what they do against the best defenders and everyone else benefits from going against worse defenders/getting less attention. when harden played in that series, rockets were -6 per 48 minutes. when he was off the court, they were -20.7 per 48 minutes (10.8 vs 3.1 against minny, 18.4 vs -12.6 vs utah). harden's impact is still high even when he's not playing his best. harden and cp3's job was to iso all day long because the rockets weren't going to put their normal offensive weapons like anderson and green on the court because they would get destroyed on defense. they loaded up on defenders and hamstrung their offense because they knew they had to win 98-94 and not 125-122. in turn, they basically asked harden/cp3 to be like running backs on a good defensive team where you try to run the clock and grind it out. you end up with 30 carries for 110 yards, which doesn't look good, but it helps you try to win 17-13 instead of 35-31. neither harden or cp3 had particular efficient series but they were basically playing a purposely deliberate style against an elite defense to try to beat an all-time great team. some statistical sacrifices had to be made.
but chris paul shot 31.6% how can you be in the conversation as best player on the floor with such bad efficiency?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? thanks for proving my point. have a good day.
Eric Gordon shot 40% from the field, and CP3 had 3 more rebounds and 5 more assists than Gordon. Do CP3's extra assists and rebounds offset Gordon's better shooting efficiency? You could make an argument that it does. That's why I said you could make an argument for either CP3 or Gordon. I'm not sure how that proved your point.
but he shot 31.6% which is all you can about. now you're flip flopping. but harden having more rebounds, the same amount of assist, more steals, more blocks, lower defensive rating, and less turnovers than CP3 in game 4 doesn't matter because of "efficiency". your lack of objectivity is showing.
Sorry, but you're wrong again. In game 4, Harden and CP3 had comparable stats which is why efficiency played a greater role in determining who had a better performance.
For game 4, Harden had 2 more rebounds, 2 more steals, and 2 more blocks than CP3. Does that compensate for CP3's significantly better efficiency? Considering the volume of Harden's shooting (3-12 from the 3pt line), I think most people would side with the significantly better efficiency.
Fun facts about Harden's 60 point triple double: 14/16 INSIDE the arc 19/30 overall Curry's 62: 8/16 behind the arc 18/31 overall
"Significantly better efficiency" The difference in TS% between CP3 and Eric Gordon in Game 5 was 0.137% Wekko368: CP3 extra rebounds and assist offset Gordon's better shooting efficiency The difference in TS% between Harden and CP3 in Game 4 was 0.088% Also Wekko368: Who cares if Harden had more rebounds, the same amount of assist, more steals, more blocks, less turnovers, and a lower defensive rating while scoring more points? Efficiency is the only thing that matters. Wow, you're really really bad at this,
I don't even know why you guys debate so much something that its obvious. Curry is better than harden. Hes got 3 championships to 0, and 2 mvps to 1. Curry has had his share of playoffs failures and chokes, but harden does it more consistently. He Quit on us against the clippers on 2015, and if it wasn't for a miracle run by 2 dudes on the team and a massive choke job by the clippers we would have lost that series. He quit again against the spurs, or you guys don't remember that? Getting blown up by like 40 without Kwahi. We did get unlucky with CP3 injury, and that was our best chance, but nobody knows if we would have won the series anyway. Its more likely than not, but who knows. Next year, Durant goes down and Harden chokes again. I don't need advanced stats to tell me story i seen over and over again by watching the games. Please point me to the AWESOME signature game by James harden , where he plays amazing and comes up clutch. You cant, because is non existent. There's a reason why all his shooting and scoring averages goes down on the playoffs. His only nba finals he chocked badly , and don't say he wasn't a star yet, coz i know that, but by his own standard on those playoffs, he chocked. Harden is not a playoff performer, and that's why he is nowhere near the top 20 all time. He s got nothing to show for. Awesome regular season player, can carry a franchise for 9 years and its guaranteed playoff berth, but when the playoffs come, he doesn't really come through.
Regarding Gordon/CP3 in game 5, you know I said that you could make an argument for either of them, right? You're acting as if I said it was definitely CP3. Regarding game 4, I think most people would agree that CP3 had the better stat line. Again, Harden shot 3-12 from the 3pt line. He show below average on high volume. You shouldn't be so eager to gloss over something like that.
By your standards there is absolutely no argument at all for CP3. Gordon had better efficiency, so there is not argument for CP3, because he had worst efficiency, but most people who actually watched the game knows that CP3 was the best player on the floor.
