His body will tell him what to do when he is on the court. Being on the court and being actually productive on the court are two separate matters.
Lol. So now it's about your standards? And you keep ignoring everything else he did in that game, how about the 8 assist? Kobe was way more inefficient yet he is somehow a basketball god, like I said he is judged differently. just look at the narrative surrounding Giannis or Butler, they have had far worst flameouts and yet they are darlings. it's amazing the lengths some will go to **** on Harden.
ORtg takes into account everything in the box score: https://www.basketball-reference.com/about/ratings.html
Tonight's referees: James Capers Ken Mauer Ben Taylor Alternate: Michael Smith https://official.nba.com/referee-assignments/
If that boxscore is not above average than that metric is doo doo. Is making 2 more shots that meaningful? Is the 7 turnovers the difference? Since when is ORtg how we judge a performance?
the refs took away his signature playoff moment in game 7 of the WCF what could’ve been 42 points on 13-28 shooting in a win ended up as 32 points on 12-29 shooting in a loss
I'm here for Harden possibly playing game 5, since it adds so much drama and interest into this pivotal game. It could be the defining playoff moment of his career. He might come out and perform incredibly, horribly or something in between. Worst case scenario is he gets injured worst (grade 3 strain or another injury due to compensation) while the best case scenario is he leads the Nets to victory and stay healthy. Either way I don't disagree with Harden being able to make the decision to play, assuming his or the team doctors clear him. Just like I disagree with criticism the warriors got for Durant playing and getting injured, I don't think the Nets should be blame if things doesn't work out. These guys aren't kids, they've got their own doctors and advisors and themselves to rely on. As JVG said on the Lowe Post today, "as long as the team isn't the one pushing him to play, he's fine with it." Tip off is in 4 and half long hours! Cant wait to see if Harden can finally have a positive career defining postseason moment and not a bunch of what ifs. It's game 5 and the series is tied 2-2, aside from facing elimination in a game 6 or 7, it doesn't get much better than this. LETS GO!
It's looks above average because he had a 35% usage rate and he played 43 minutes. If you play long enough and you control the ball then you will probably put up decent looking numbers from a naive look at the box score. ORtg is an actual systematic appraisal of the box score statistics devised by a person widely regarded as a pioneer when it comes to advanced stats (https://www.sloansportsconference.com/people/dean-oliver?mode=list). The Win Shares statistic that basketball reference puts out is based on it. You could also look at the simpler game score rating as an alternate metric for summarizing his box score numbers for the game. His game score rating was middling for a player playing 43 minutes with a 35% usage. I'm not going to say it was a bad game. It was ... OK. But it's not anything like a defining playoff game, and it was FIVE YEARS AGO. The original point stands: Harden needs more great games on his playoff resume to match the caliber of player he has proven himself to be in the regular season. Now let's move on and hope Harden can stay healthy the rest of the way.
Unrelated: this dude looks like a cartoon character. Like then someone puts realistic skin on Homer Simpson or Mario and Luigi and leaves the proportions and you go - that ain't right.
It was an unfair game. Haters don't care about games that are unfair nor does history. Think about Dirk Nowitzki. I remember that prior to his epic playoff performance in his championship year, everybody gave him crap about his shortcomings over the years. I remember he was clowned on over the GSW loss in that MVP year. The narrative didn't change until he won that championship. After that, history sort of forgot of all his failures and he was immortalized in basketball history. Hope that hammy stays healthy tonight and the rest of the playoffs and he can get that championship.
Boxscore analysis only goes so far. Im sure the game is out there to rewatch. Harden dominated the 1st Q, getting us to a solid start, and we exploited Dwight in the 2nd, then Harden had a strong 3rd again, including a demoralizes walk-off midrange to end the quarter … and we entered the 4th up by 17. With that lead, game dynamics change … 9-10 fts in the 4th when up by 17 is called taking us home with little threat.
