The guy is just tired. He averages almost 37 minutes per game, and has been the offensive focus of the team. The Rockets need to reduce his minutes & load, maybe cut down to ~33min per game?
Harden really needs to have a STRONG game against the Clippers on Sunday. ABC nationally televised game. It makes a difference with the voters. Harden had a nice surge publicly after that ABC televised Cleveland game. Need to do it again.
Dropped to third in NBA.com rankings [rquoter]Harden and the Rockets were not at their best in Thursday's blowout loss to the Utah Jazz. Pair this performance with Wednesday's loss in Portland and it's clear Harden and the Rockets need to crank it up in a major way against the Clippers Sunday in Los Angeles to salvage this road road trip. Harden's supporting cast has to deliver -- and soon -- against the other elite teams in the Western Conference playoff chase. As the intensity continues to rise in the final weeks of the season, the immense burden Harden has carried will get heavier as teams focus on stopping him. Rudy Gobert dominated the Rockets inside Thursday night and, until Dwight Howard comes back, the Rockets will remain vulnerable in the middle. That puts extra pressure on Harden on the perimeter and also limits the work he can do in creating for himself and others around the rim. Howard is expected back in two weeks. Harden needs him to do more than just show up in uniform. He needs him at his best as soon as possible because the Rockets are 6-9 when he scores less than 20 points, something he's done in back-to-back games. __________________________________________________________ 1. Curry 2. LeBron 3. Harden 4. Westbrook 5. Aldridge ------------------------------------- 6. Jeff Teague, Atlanta Hawks 7. Marc Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies 8. Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers 9. Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans 10. Pau Gasol, Chicago Bulls The next five: Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers; Al Horford, Atlanta Hawks; Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers; Klay Thompson, Golden State Warriors; Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs http://www.nba.com/2015/news/featur...id=576435111765262336&adbpl=tw&adbpr=19923144[/rquoter]
You are delusional about marriage. It is an institutional scam that keeps all of us miserable. Harden needs to cut that beard.
This is the period of the season when real MVPs step up and separate themselves from the pack. Everyone is getting tired and banged up, but if Harden wants to win games and cement his MVP chances, he's going to have to reach down and find his mojo again.
LeBron jumped ahead of Harden due to the efforts of Irving. Curry didn't play well this week either but his team stayed winning.
Just watched the Sports Reporters and not one mention of James Harden. Kyrie Irving and Chris Paul were mentioned though, along with Curry and LeBron.
this team is still integrating new players and will be doing more of that when dwight returns - plenty of games to play still - this is the western conference
Well, Harden has a prime opportunity to boost his standing back up... Quality Western Conference opponent on national network television.
I'm sure the voters won't see it this way, but Harden's struggles the last few weeks actually enhances his MVP candidacy in my opinion. The last few weeks have proven how much the Rockets rely on Harden, and also have shown that unlike the other candidates he doesn't have another super star on the team to take pressure off of him from night to night. When you look at all the other candidates with the exception of Westbrook, they have an MVP worthy player playing at their side. Lebron has Irving, Curry has Thompson, Paul has Griffin and Jordan. Regarding Westbrook, his personal numbers have been insane over the last few weeks, but the teams win loss record hasn't been great during that time. I also think Westbrook is benefiting from the time he was out earlier in the year which has allowed him to be more fresh down the stretch. I think it's pretty obvious of the leading candidates for MVP Harden has been the most valuable to his team, but again I'm sure the voters won't see it that way.
ESPN is a load of crap. They has a scroll of all the games yesterday. You know whose stats were showed? Westbrook, LeBron, Irving, and Davis. Just skipped over Harden's stats. No bias right?
The treatment of Westbrook as a leading candidate has been a puzzler to me as well. The media has already written Anthony Davis off as a candidate based on his team record (even before he missed games), but Westbrook, who has played barely less games at a barely better record, is suddenly in the race based on stats? PER - Davis 31.6, Westbrook 29.7 WS - Davis 11.4, Westbrook 8.4 WS/48 - Davis .283, Westbrook .234 Games played - Davis 54, Westbrook 51 Team Win% - Davis .545, Westbrook .561 The notable plus to Westbrook is that Davis' team chugged along at .500 without him while the Thunder without Durant and Westbrook were in the neighborhood of .333, but over a sample size of 12-15 games is that really enough to put Westbrook in the race and Davis out of it? Unless the Thunder finish with 50+ wins I don't think it should even be a discussion.
When Harden is doing well: The "Oh, it's based on the WHOLE SEASON" argument from haters comes out When Harden is tired: It's based on how well you play during the home stretch of the season argument comes out. Harden won't be MVP because he's not on one of the chosen teams. /Thread
Never has the comedy of most posters on this forum been so tidily wrapped up in one post. In a lot more words than was necessary, you just made, well, tried to make the case that Harden's MVP candidacy should be IMPROVED because he struggled in an 18 point blowout to the sub-.500 Utah Jazz. Maybe he can go 3-17 with 9 points on Tuesday in a 15 point loss to the Magic and REALLY lock up that MVP trophy. Wow.
