they get some kind of glee out of trashing Harden last year when Lillard had 50 on OKC and the game winner, u immediately saw the clowns on his nuts and trashing Harden these are the same losers who will latch onto any negative hit piece on Harden, even if it has zero basis...a few weeks ago some former WC executive thought Harden wouldn’t want JVG because JVG likes to practice...u saw those idiots saying that’s why Harden is a loser and saying Harden needs to shut up even tho it was only what some random dude thought about Harden
*Ponders OP's question for a split second* *Looks at OP's stats on the site* 150 posts since his/her join date of 2011. *Stops pondering OP's question and wonders if OP is actually Jimmy Butler*
I don't remember that. I do remember me saying that Harden is not going to like a coach who changes the system where he has to move a lot more and be held more accountable. Harden needs a player's coach or else it would turn into another CP3 situation where a wiser teammate calls out his flaws and he gets frustrated and angry which leads him to say passive aggressive **** like "I know what needs to happen" after being eliminated which obviously meant "CP3 needs to be gone". Harden loves practicing his faceup iso dribble game.
If Curry only had Westbrook and our high IQ gang to work with, he sure as **** would be doubled. LeBron, no different. You refuse to acknowledge that he’s doubled because of his ABILITY to destroy traditional defenses and the rest of our rosters inability to do anything. Be upset he doesn’t move off ball as much as you would like. But chill with the bullshit comparisons. If Harden had snipers like Klay and KD to outlet to teams would never be able to double. Lebron started seeing a pretty steady diet of doubles last night. Whoops EIGHT turnovers.
Draymond Green, McGee, Bogut etc have all been part of the line up while Curry played and teams didn't incessantly double Curry off ball. Why? Because defenses aren't ****ing stupid. Curry is just going to sprint around a screen which is going to discombobulate the defense and make them all positioned in the wrong spots. You don't double Curry off ball like you don't rush that agile mobile qb in backyard two hand touch football.
So what's your argument? That, if other players had to endure the consequences of Harden's bad decisions, they too would suffer? I guess that's true, but then again, those players wouldn't have made the bad decisions in the first place so it's a moot point.
To answer OP's question: Jimmy Butler's performance last night has a Game Score of 42, his previous high was Game 1 against Milwaukee this year where he destroyed the Bucks with a Game Score of 33.5. After that, Butler doesn't have any performances with a Game Score of 30 or higher. Harden's best performance in the playoffs yielded a score of 41 in Game 4 of the 2015 WCF against Golden State. His next high is 38.7 in the same series but in Game 2. In his career, Harden's registered 8 other performances with a Game Score of 30 or higher. So to answer OP's question: Short Answer: No, Harden has never had a performance like Butler's if we're using Game Score as an indicator. Long Answer: No but Harden's put together more high performance games in the playoffs than Butler has based on Game Scores. To put it into perspective: Kobe's highest playoff Game Score is 43.6 and next highest is 43.3. He has 13 performances in the 30 Game Score range. LeBron's highest playoff Game Score is 44.7, followed by 43.8. He has four other performances in the 40 range and FORTY EIGHT in the 30 range. Damian Lillard's highest is 36.9 Kevin Durant's highest is 39.6 Steph Curry's highest is 37.2 Jamal Murray's Game 4 against Utah this year was a 45.2 Jordan's highest was 49.8
Harden also has a significanltly higher usage than Butler and this really isn't fair of a comparison as Harden is compared to LeBron, Curry and Jordan on Clutchfans, not freaking Jimmy Butler. Our expectations of Harden is not Jimmy Butler. According to so many posters here who think Harden is as dangerous if a offensive threat as MJ, his expectations are MJ.
Well he should be held to a higher standard than a Jimmy Butler because he's better than Jimmy Butler. Butler's performance last night is more of an outlier than the norm for him.
.... what? Off ball doubling? We are talking about reasons why teams decide to double Harden as he crosses half court. You continue to perpetuate this nonsense that it only happens because hardens laziness allows it. You refuse to acknowledge that his teammates inability to punish the defense for doing so plays any kind of factor. You downplay that the ONLY reason to even consider such a strategy is because the player is so badly beating everything else the league has tried. Spouting off a few non shooters Curry has shared the floor with at times doesn’t change the fact that the majority of Stephs minutes coincided with at least 1 all time level shooter and Draymond isn’t a walking turnover if the ball is kicked out to him and he has to put the ball on the floor and make a decision. That’s actually something he really excels at. We saw last night with LeBron. They showed him a ton of doubles. He had a great game but turned it over like crazy. His teammates mostly sucked. Especially his co star. His teammates inability to punish the double last night empowered Miami to continue doubling. Not just because of some laziness or indecisiveness by LeBron.
Except most his guys are those elusive scorers with size that the Rockets have hard time acquiring. Olynek has been inquired in past years. They got some arching shooting supporting casts that perform like like a well oiled machine.
More like Jimmy Butler had a James Harden like performance. How many 40 burger triple doubles has Jimmy had, ever? And notice that Jimmy played 45 minutes. Remember when Beard used to play 40 minutes and CF would shat their pants?
Westbrook is a far superior ball handler than Draymond. In a reasonable world Westbrook is the far better option to dump off the ball to than Draymond off a double team. Draymond doesn't have to work with their superstar just standing around lollygaging after he passes off a double. That helps Draymond tremendously. I keep heari g 4 vs 3 when if you watfh Rocket games routinely you'll know it just turns into 4 vs 4. 1. Harden walks into where the defense wants to double. He gets doubled on their terms. He'll also hold on to the ball for 10-15 seconds allowing defenses to make calculated decisions on their positioning and whom to double off of which means when Harden is doubled, the team defense is set and they know exactly who to funnel the ball to to the exact spot on the court they want to double off of which is usually in the Rockets no-man zone on offense which is the around the free throw line because they know no one will shoot from there even if they are wide ****ing open. 2. When he passes out of a double he just stands around with no intent of reengaging in the offense which means when you double Harden once in a offensive set you have effectively taken out the Rockets' most dangerous threat on offense extremely easily while someone like Curry will find away to re-engage on offense after he passes from a double by running back through a screen and finding himself open for a clean simple look. This also allows Curry to stay in rhythm as he isn't so easily denied shooting opportunities. 3. When the defense knows that Harden is only going to take shot attempts from 2 spots on the court, it becomes even more easier for the defense to chose where to double and when to just ignore guarding Harden. Notice how they always give him so much space when he's in the mid range area where they will pack the paint and guard the three point line. 4. When Harden walks up the court without the ball he's the easiest guard in the league to shade and deny the ball as his go to moves there are either to give up on the play or playing a shoving match where he jumps on top of a defender or does some shoving match.
Jimmy is on fire these past 2 years, 2 Playoffs. I didn't remember him to be dis good with them Bulls or Wolves.
