James Harden does not have the heart of a champion.

I felt that he tried hard and put in effort defensively but he settles for the three way too often. We're playing five out, everyone should be getting to the rim at will but it's usually just Russ.

 

Chris Paul?

Harden has been deeper in the the playoffs 3 times as much as CP and has never blown a 3-1 series lead or a 3-2 series lead.

What has Russ done since Durant left.

You sound foolish.

 

he really tried to pull the “this was a jinx thread”...just own that this thread was a huge fail

dudes couldn’t wait for Harden and the team to fail blowing their load early on these dumb threads...many probably had trash threads lined up ready to go and were just waiting for a loss to hit “create thread”

Harden with the Dikembe finger wag on these “fans”

 

i like that covington is putting the ball on the floor recently and attacking the rim

 

If you're gonna ride with Harden when he drops 40 and 50 bombs you have to ride with him when he's having a bad offensive game. Say what you want but he was tremendous on defense last night and he basically won us the game.

He got criticized for losing to the Warriors multiple times while putting up awesome numbers offensively. He has a bad offensive game against the thunder in game 7 but makes the game winning defensive play.

You can't criticize him for one and not praise or commend him for the other. Give him credit where it's due.

 

I don’t understand why you are quoting me. I gave props to James for maturing and realizing you can affect a game defensively even when your shot isn’t falling. That wasn’t the case until Chris Paul and P.J. Tucker joined the Rockets in 2018 and started holding him accountable on that end of the court. The Rockets lose last night with the younger version of Harden.

Also, I never said he hasn’t been playing defense in the bubble, or during the rest of the regular season for that matter. I have acknowledged on multiple occasions that James Harden has turned himself into an asset on the defensive end and is one of the best post defenders in the NBA.

However, I’m not going to accept the excuse that the referees eliminated Harden’s ability to drive to the basket. Great players find a way to score no matter the defense, the referees, etc. James Harden has been triple teamed at times during the regular season and still finds a way to score 30 or more points. Yet, in an elimination game in the playoffs, the referees are the reason Harden only takes eight first-half shots and has numerous possessions where he’s throwing the ball wildly at the rim on drives, seemingly praying for it to go in the basket. Nobody would accept that excuse for any other MVP-caliber NBA player, so why should it be accepted for Harden? It’s ok for fans to be objective about a player. Objectively, Harden was awful offensively last night, but he stayed engaged defensively and made the defensive play of his career to send the Rockets to the second round. His teammates stepped up offensively when he was having an off night, so props to Covington, Westbrook, Gordon and Jeff Green, too. At the end of the day, I only care about one thing: the Rockets winning.

Furthermore, even if the referees did make it harder for him to drive, that’s why he worked so hard to develop a floater as a counter to teams like the Bucks that pack the paint and won’t let him get to the rim. It was an elimination game and he had eight first-half shots. Every Rockets’ fan was getting frustrated with his performance, and, if the Rockets lose last night, D’Antoni is likely gone, Morey could leave, and the Rockets would have to make a lot of tough decisions about where to go from here as an organization. So, it was natural for fans of this team to wonder when would the real James Harden step up last night.

In the second half, he spent most of his time jacking up his patented step-back three, which was clearly off this game. It wasn’t until he returned early in the fourth quarter that he finally made a concerted effort to force the action and get to the rim, no matter the circumstances, and he made two layups. I’m happy he did, but I wish he would have made his mind up to do that much earlier. Finally, no matter the player, if your outside shot isn’t falling, make the adjustment and start attacking the basket to get easier looks and see the ball go through the hoop. More often than not, simply seeing the ball go through the basket makes the outside shot start falling again.

 

Russell Westbrook is in the second round for the first time since 2016 because he couldn't drag his team farther than the first round.

The only time Chris Paul has advanced to the WCF (or any CF) is...in 2018, on James Harden's team. Dude couldn't do it leading his team in NO and he couldn't do it with Blake and DeAndre. And now he couldn't do it with OKC.

GTFOH with that "heart of a champion" crap. If Russ and CP3 had it, they'd be better than Harden. They're not.

 

I think he was probably just frustrated and got over his skis but trying to play it off as a anti jinx thread is not gonna fly.

 

No one here is saying that Harden is worse than those two.

People in this forum compare Harden to MJ. That's the standard we are adhering to if his stans are willing to make these claims.

 

Covington needs to learn how to finish in the paint. He missed way too many layups in this series, many of them coming in crunch time.

Taking that a step further, part of the reason D’Antoni has tried to stick with Eric Gordon longer than he should, is he’s one of the few Rockets besides Harden and Westbrook that can attack the basket when he is run off the three-point line. House, Rivers and Green can do it at times, but Covington, McLemore and Tucker can’t.

 

Good thing Westbrook stepped up in the final minutes. Gave me a heart attack for a little. Harden just had a bad game, but sometimes he can just throw the game away with his iso jack up 3 ball. But he is our star player getting paid max money, so the ball goes in his hands in crunch time......
But to be honest that last few minutes of game time, the instant referee review kinda ruin the experience of watching. Football is ok because they stop after each play but basketball is suppose to be a fast paced game.

 

Something happens in big games where he doesn't try to score an focuses on getting other people off. Especially when he doesn't hit his first couple of shots he immediately goes into an offensive funk. Normally that extends to the defensive end, but he played very good defense and had 3 blocks I think.

 

Can heart surgery fix it? The rest of him seems okay. He be okay.

 

Some of you need to find a new team to root for. This is absurd

 

Among all the players who actually played serious minutes in the series Harden led all with a +11.5 net rating

We won when he played. We lost when he sat.

Scored 30 a game on 62% True shooting

Most impactful player in the series.

Biggest reason we won.

Complain if you must I guess.

 

Look at the big picture. We squeaked out a win against an inexperienced, inferior team we were favored to beat.

It shouldn't have been as tough as it was, and I think that worries a lot of Rockets fans.

 

His biggest improvement I've seen from him in terms of mentality is he doesn't let his offense affect his defense anymore. I'll definitely give him credit there.

But you are right. In too many key games in the playoffs he becomes ultra passive for some reason especially when he misses his first few shots of the game.

 

I would argue that you aren’t looking at the big picture at all.

When the playoffs started our series(a series featuring two teams with the exact same record)was the closest in terms of betting odds.

40 million dollars of cap space missed the first 4 games. And was pretty bad overall when he did play.

Where would OKC have been without Paul for the first 4 games?

 

did u see his last minute defence ?