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

You need to put yourself in Harden's shoes. Imagine it was you losing a prestige award that meant a lot to you. Man I would be gutted and clearly it's going to impact my mind and performance. I guess with time things like this eventually blow over. I'm not Harden and I'm feeling the hurt of him not winning the award.

Going home to my millions of $$$ and making it rain on strippers I guess would help ease the pain. Hopefully he thinks the same.

 

We'd have lost to a Joel Embiid coached Sixers.

 

Wow is that right, well if that's the case, don't you think he should have taking it personal and went off for 50/10/10/4/2. That's the best way to let off some team. Take it out on your opponent and not your own team.

Im just saying!

 

That's BS. He played soft. This is par for the course with Harden. When the other team gets physical with him and the refs aren't blowing the whistle, he checks out mentally. He starts to camp out on the perimeter and either dribble out the clock and jack up a forced long jumper or just dish the ball off to a teammate and wait for them to do something.

I was at the home loss to Phoenix back in March and this was exactly how he played. Shoot, the game even played out almost identically(close at the half, Suns take the lead in the 3rd and then blow it open in the 4th). Harden's gotta man up and stop acting so petulant and moody when the game doesn't go exactly how he has it scripted.

You know what? Some nights, you're not gonna get 15 free throw attempts. You're not gonna get a whistle just for driving into 3 defenders and flailing your arms. That stepback 3-pointer is not gonna fall(although he did make one to close the 1st quarter last night). He's a diverse enough offensive player that he has other moves he can go to. And he needs to focus as well on taking care of the ball and not quitting on defense just because he's not scoring at his usual clip.

 

Good lord what a stupid ass post.

 

He isn't a point guard, man. That's part of it. And we don't have a coach that actively puts him in creative positions to score. Every point has to come in a difficult way for Harden. Nobody is helping him out. He's also scared ****less of Jordan, I bet that's driving Morey crazy. Go get blocked or draw the foul - do something.

 

LoL

 

I love everything that Harden has done for the team, but it's time to consider that his inconsistency during the playoffs - for whatever reason - is just something we are going to have to accept.

It's why the 2nd (and/or 3rd) star is so important to what is being built here. Without Dwight this postseason the Rockets would be in a very bad way.

 

Some of it is on Harden. He's not being aggressive out there on either end of the floor. But he also needs a supporting cast who step up. If the Clippers are gonna double him every time he touches the ball as they did last night, it means someone is open. Now obviously Harden's gotta not turn the damn ball over 9 times, but it also means that Ariza, Terry, Smith, Jones, and Brewer have to make open shots or layups. It was a brickfest from downtown aside from Pepperoni and I lost count of how many point blank shots the Rockets blew.

Last night was a total team effort in turns of suckiness(Dwight and Pepperoni being the lone exceptions). Everyone can and must play better. But it starts with Harden. He sets the tone. If he comes out again and is lackadaisical and careless with the ball, the rest of the players will follow suit.

 

Harden messed up big time, but the series isn't over yet.


The Rockets play as a whole needs to improve or this season will be a failure IMO. Last year's outcome is part of my reasoning.... when we severely underachieved.


It's not over yet, though. I think we can win the next 4 games or 4 of 5.

Go Rockets!!

 

Give him a break. In the Mavs series, he was struggling on the floor and he deferred to his teammates and they won the game. This game, he tried to defer to them again but didn't get the same result.

The clips double-teamed him and the support cast didn't deliver and yes it falls on him too. Just like last series when everyone cried when Harden would show up then he dropped 40, I wouldn't count him out on going MVP mode like we're used to.

 

MVP is a regular season award.

 

True, but if Harden had played better last postseason and the Rockets advanced further, it likely would've helped his chances subconsciously with voters this year.

If the Rockets flop again this year and Harden plays poorly, it will hurt his chances next year. Voters probably wouldn't admit it, but they have to kinda consciously be thinking, "does a petulant playoff choker deserve this award".

 

Looks like the Clippers did all the warming up.

 

13 FGA that is absurd for a superstar in the playoffs.

He needs to nut up bottom line.

 

Um, The Warriors had a longer layoff and rolled Memphis in game 1.

 

You're right, but to throw 9 turnovers and revert back to 2014 Harden defense shows that he was not ready to play tonight.

If he's missing shots, whatever. You can live with that. The lazy passes and defense are what really frustrate, especially when he's not providing the usual scoring.

I expect him to bounce back Wednesday, but it's just deflating seeing how big of an opportunity we missed.

 

Referees cannot blow the whistle unless something happens lol. Harden didn't do anything last night to get close to a whistle. One he received wasn't until he missed so that was not the issue. He just checked out mentally, you could see it on one of his TOs where he lost control. He didn't run back and looked as if to say, it's just not my night.

 

Lol it's funny how Harden had 20pts 12asts 4stls and y'all talk about em like he didn't do anything. Yes, the turnovers were a killer, but let's not get carried away. A playoff series is all about adjustments. Game 2 should be much better. Maybe this kind of loss at home without CP3 is what this team needed to light some sort of fire in them.

 

I'll take Harden having half those stats if he didn't have 9 TURNOVERS and piss poor defense.