WTF! a team needs more than 1 superstar to beat a 2 superstar 2 all star 2 time defending champ superteam?
fair, but he's the MVP making $30 mil. he's not like anyone else on the team. He's supposed to play like an mvp and he didn't. he's got to own that and grow from this. Everyone gave maximum effort, but we weren't depending on Tucker or Ariza for our offense; we were depending on Harden. And he didn't deliver.
just curious which superstar could have gotten the rockets farther given the same circumstances this year?
MVP or no MVP Harden has had shooting woes his entire career in the playoffs. I think the only season where he was efficient was 2015 when he didn't take as many 3's, but even then there was huge variance in his shooting numbers. I think Harden needs to retool his game a bit, he's not young anymore either, the window is closing, he needs to tighten his offensive game up based on his past mistakes.
i am not hating on harden. i'm pointing out that he had a bad playoff series and we can't beat the warriors with our best player playing poorly. If harden had played well, i think we win the series. It's not about comparing him to someone else. I'm just saying that he didn't play well and that was a big factor in us not making the finals. Is that even a debatable take?
howbout he was not able to okay well because he had the heaviest burden to carry? I'm not even talking about comparing him.. but aside from Lebron, who could have possibly taken the rockets farther?? if you can't name one, then that means what you're asking from harden is pretty much impossible..
Its impossible for harden to play at a high level in the playoff because he's overburdened? We have one of if not the best supporting casts weve ever had. I dont understand.
he wasn’t bad in this series...he was just ok...he defended well, had a great game 1, and had a couple of incredible halves...his main issue is that his jumper was broke from 3 overall in this series: 29, 6, and 6 to go along with 2 steals a game with 41-24-89 shooting splits the only player in the NBA who would’ve done better than Harden in games 6 and 7 is Lebron
A lot of that supporting cast was trash or unplayable in this series. Mike couldn’t trust more than 7 guys. Harden was overburdened in this series, especially after CP3 went down. Luc was a shell of himself, Nene can’t play against GS, ISO Joe is washed, and Ryno was just useless. Ariza shot 33% from the field and 20% from 3 in this series. Tuck was good, and Capela was nice at times. Green hit some threes, and Ego had some moments.
i'm sorry, but i disagree. the guy shot 24% from 3 in this series. he also turned the ball over 5 times a game. that's definitely subpar for Harden. Sure he found other ways to contribute, but we needed him to play well to have a chance of beating Golden State. The bottom line is that our MVP did not play like an MVP and that's a big reason why we are not in the finals.
We were a Chris injury from a title from wining a championship with a harden led team. Harden is the least of our issues
Like I said, his jumper was broke from 3. That was his biggest problem and the reason he was ok instead of great in this series. Also, his turnover rate in this series was 15.4% which was just a minuscule increase over his 15.1% turnover rate during the regular season. The only reason it was even that high is because he had 14 turnovers in the 2 games CP3 missed. In the 1st 5 games of this series with CP3 in the lineup he was averaging only 4 turnovers a game which was even lower than the 4.4 turnovers a game he averaged during the regular season. Harden as the full time PG is a turnover machine, we saw that last year. Harden as the full time PG against GS’s defense and the refs swallowing their whistles will rack up turnovers like no other. I’m not sure why you would’ve expected any different. The biggest reason we are not in the finals is because CP3 got hurt. Harden was doing more than enough for us to beat GS this series. His issue is that he didn’t morph into Lebron once CP3 went down in order to beat 4 all stars and 3 crooked refs by himself. Harden should’ve had 40+ points on 28-29 shots in game 7, but the refs took away a 4 point play and didn’t call 2 clear and obvious fouls on 3 point attempts for him. That’s 10 potential points taken off the table. Those were egregious errors, and as a result, Harden finishes with 32 points on 29 shots and a big fat L.
[QUOTE="Reeko, post: The biggest reason we are not in the finals is because CP3 got hurt. Harden was doing more than enough for us to beat GS this series. His issue is that he didn’t morph into Lebron once CP3 went down in order to beat 4 all stars and 3 crooked refs by himself.[/QUOTE] I agree that if CP3 was healthy we are probably in the finals. But if Harden plays well, we are probably in the finals. So pick your scapegoat. You are pointing at CP3 and the refs. I'm pointing to our MVP shooting 24% with 34 turnovers in the series. It's never just one thing, but we should have won this series, even with Paul hurt. We had two opportunities to put it away, leading at halftime, and if Harden plays well, we capitalize on one of those opportunities. I refuse to believe that we couldn't have won this without Chris Paul. We were right there.
I agree that if CP3 was healthy we are probably in the finals. But if Harden plays well, we are probably in the finals. So pick your scapegoat. You are pointing at CP3 and the refs. I'm pointing to our MVP shooting 24% with 34 turnovers in the series. It's never just one thing, but we should have won this series, even with Paul hurt. We had two opportunities to put it away, leading at halftime, and if Harden plays well, we capitalize on one of those opportunities. I refuse to believe that we couldn't have won this without Chris Paul. We were right there.[/QUOTE] Just sick. You make it sound like Harden lost the game. The team lost the game CP3 not playing, forcing Harden to go 1 on 4 stars lost the game. They had leads because they played well but ran out of gas. This stack team was garbage subs and lose CP3 you got no subs. Can Harden play better? Yes. Can he play like Lebron? There is only one and he cannot win against GSW by himselve either.
