James Harden does not have the heart of a champion.

Yes, CP3 and Schroder can help fill the slack, but that doesn't change the fact that OKC can't win without SGA playing well. For a 2nd year player, that's a lot of pressure.

Gallo is a fine role player but let's not act if he's a dominant offensive player. He got 1 point in game 5 and 4 points in game 7. That's not someone "who can get buckets".

Regular season means more than your speculation.

Again, Nurkic wasn't on the team during the regular season. They weren't a typical 8th seed. And the Lakers have 2 of the top players in the league. There's a reason they were the #1 seed.

 

Anyone that watched the game wouldn't have the opinion that Harden doesn't have what it takes. No, he didn't score well. But he did literally everything else to lead his team to a Game 7 win. Assists, steals, important rebounds, blocks. That block was an amazing play...and the wherewithal to get out of the way when Dort tried to throw it off of him (even if it didn't matter in the end since Dort was already out of bounds).

Harden played like a champion and did what he needed to do. Just looking at the box score doesn't make one an expert.

 

WTF has happened to you man? Did your kid or wife take over your account? This ain't the EggZero I know.

 

For some reason, thread title reminds me of Wizard of Oz...

MDA = Lion (missing courage to make the right call / timeout)
Harden = Tin man (missing heart to will us through)
Russ = Scarecrow (missing brain to slow it down when needed)

In the end, Harden had enough heart to contest that shot and Russ had enough brain to recognize the last play. MDA... still lacked the courage for the timeout. But Harden and Russ made up for it with their game-saving signaling for the timeout after the CP miss.

 

The definition of little d energy vs big d energy. First round vs finals.

 

Gallo was top 2 in scoring for OKC in regular season.

WTH are you babbling about now?

 

Leading scorer on an incredibly well balanced team, and one where he was still clearly not the best player on [or leader of] his team. We're not talking about a rookie Carmelo Anthony-led Nuggets here. We're talking about a very good starter who never had any pressure to perform at a high level in this series. "Experience" comes into play mostly when there are expectations to achieve certain results, and to be responsible for those results.

Yes, Herro was an extreme example, but that was the point. The same thing, though to a lesser extent, applies to SGA.

 

I said it from jump but I’d have kept cp3 and tried to trade Clint + Gordon + whatever else to get Russ.

If they were leaning towards going small all the time anyways, this to me made the most sense. Go all in with the best small ball guys you can get. Probably means no Covington but I think having 2 of the three of those guys on the floor at all times would make up for that. James would have even less ball handling and scoring pressure. I don’t think that trio would be able to be stopped by anyone. Plus we may have been able to get one of the Thunder young guys like Dort.

 

What? They literally have won without him playing well? Do you know there was a reason Cp got voted to the All Star game this year and that Zach Lowe put him on all NBA second team. Like how are you analyzing this? Their 3 guard lineup had the best net rating in the league.

He can get buckets, and he's been in the playoffs, my point is that he is there to take scoring pressure off of Shai and did.

Yea I guess OKC beat us 2 times in the regular season, guess that means they should have been a lock to beat us. Regular Season match ups do not matter. Its all about what happens in the playoffs. Bro, your regular season analysis is very suspect in of itself if you think Shai being their leading scorer means OKC is an experienced team.

So what? They beat a bunch of bad teams to get into the playoffs with him and they were barely squeaking by, their defense was always very bad. They had Melo playing big minutes, that is not the sign of a good team. We have two top player's in the league as well.

 

He got 1 point in game 5 and 4 points in game 7. What're you babbling about?

 

Dort is a special defender. Not many people have that combo of size / lateral quickness, he’s perfectly built and disciplined enough to give harden fits, nobody on the lakers will be able to clamp him like that... I hope

 

Whoops!

 

Harden needs to see a sports psychologist.

 

Are you aware that the playoffs are a completely different animal than the regular season? How often do 2nd year studs carry that success into the postseason?

SGA had 4 good games against us. OKC won 2 of them. He had 3 bad games against us, and OKC won 1 of them. Like I said, it's unlikely that OKC wins without SGA playing well, especially in a playoff atmosphere.

I can't believe you're arguing against this.

Regular season matchups matter more than you think. Why don't you look at all the surprising playoff upsets and then look at their regular season matchups? You'll be surprised.

Also, all of our regular season games against OKC were with Capela and before Covington.

Are you trolling me? I've been arguing that OKC is an inexperienced team.

Portland went 6-2 in the bubble. They had close losses to the Clippers and Boston. What exactly are you criticizing? That they beat their opponents in order to get to the playoffs?

Carmelo had to play big minutes because Ariza opted out of the bubble.

 

You're saying OKC's regular season leading scorer didn't have any pressure to perform at a high level in the playoffs?

Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?

 

Hey moron, you are talking about top scorers in regular season for OKC. The difference between SGA and Gallo was 0.3 PPG over course of regular season.

Gallo - 18.7 PPG
SGA - 19.0 PPG

Stay on point and admit when you are a nimrod.

 

So busting his ass off all night on defense is not heart? Skip Bayless of all people was praising hardens effort last night

 

I'm sorry you're too stupid to understand that Gallinari isn't the type of scorer you can give the ball to and tell him to go to work. That's why he had a playoff game where he scored 1 point.

 

I am aware that they are different, are you ??? He did.

So did Schroder and So did Cp3, you putting this all on SGA is such a laughable way to analyze this. What do you mean? Are you saying he's their best player? LOL cause he isnt. Oh and btw Schroder had the highest net rating for OKC, not SGA.

And alot of the times, they dont mean jack. You are contradicting youself right now. Like you said Regular season and playoffs are completely different.

I know, but that's how much regular season match ups mean, things change people adjust. The regular season does not matter. Go look what any analyst says. Sheesh

I know, you what you have been arguing....you are wrong, OKC is not an inexperienced team...good lord.

Lol they beat weak opponenets. They lost to the Clippers 3rd stringers...and still lost to Boston. I'm saying they arent as good as you say because their record is inflated with weak teams.

So what? It still means Melo had to play and he was pretty awful.