Harden is consistently awful in the playoffs. The team was winning despite his awfulness in this series. 0-11 from three in a playoff game from an MVP candidate? He needed to lead his team in Game 7 and he couldn't do it. Could barely get off shots when they needed him to hit shots. He's not good. Whether or not Houston would've won with CP3, we'll never know. Yes they won two in a row but they lost by 41 with CP3 too. Look, Superbeard. I was rooting for the Rockets tonight. He let me down big time. He didn't play well. In the biggest game of the year. Just like Game 6 last year vs Spurs. He simply isn't a big time player in big time games. Never has been. It's why OKC wouldn't pay him max deal. He wasn't worth it. He's a quality 6th man. Nothing more.
He's not consistently awful? Everyone always looks at his FG% when it's a poor stat for a player that gets to the line as much as he does and a player that only shoots 3s and layups. Therefore most of his shots are 3s, layups, or FTs. Harden continues to have great games in the playoffs, but people are putting him on some Jordan/Lebron standard where he needs to have great games in the playoffs every single game. Very very few players are capable of this. The reason Harden dominates the regular season is the reason many star players do...because the Hawks are coming to town or the Knicks or coming to town so time to get a 50 point triple double and have a little fun. In the playoffs, no such thing as that. In the playoffs Harden has to get past the likes of Butler every trip down, has to score on Gobert, then play against the best defensive team in the NBA. No wonder he has bad playoff games then.
Harden created enough open shots for his teammates, if they hit 3...three of those open shots...the Rockets win this game. Hell, if the refs called 3 obvious shooting fouls for Harden, they probably win this game. I'm not blaming the role players for not hitting shots, I'm going to blame MDA for running his 7 man rotations and completely destroying Ryan Anderson's confidence before I put any blame on Ariza, Tucker, Gerald Green, or any of the others for missing open shots. They balled out, they probably had dead legs, every player on the Rockets gave their most. I think the Rockets paid for their short rotation tonight
This is nothing like Game 6 last year. Nothing at all. Game 6 last year Harden didn't even shoot the ball. I mean you go too far saying Harden is not a good player. Harden was gritty this series, grinded, he missed shots but those are his shots man. You don't tell a superstar player to stop taking his signature shot. In the end, Harden has to hit his shots for his team to have a chance while Durant can sit back and watch Curry take over. Harden didn't have that anymore, although props to Gordon for stepping up like he did, he was really bad previous series and woke right up for this one. Problem is Gordon can't create for anyone but himself.
CP3 is huge for Harden the same way that Kyrie was huge for Lebron or why Durant ran to GSW (Actually, Durant's just a chump, he had enough talent in OKC), CP3 allows Harden to not carry his team so much. The entire offense runs through Harden, the entire offense. Just like any MDA offense it is entirely dependent on its Point guards. In MDA's offense it is practically impossible for the team to succeed without Harden or CP3, they create everything.
If the rockets hit 3-5 more 3s, they win the game tonight, if Ariza hit 3 threes, Gerald Green 1, Tucker 1 more, the Rockets win. So blaming this lost on Harden is puzzling to me. I put the blame on MDA for his 7 man rotations. At one point he put in Joe Johnson, Rockets go on a 7-1 run...then he suddenly takes out JJ to put Harden back in after giving him like 2 mins of rest. Why do that? Just let the bench unit make their run, get the man all the rest he can get. He has to learn to trust more of his players and you can't just throw them in game 7 and expect them to flick a switch and give you big minutes like that.
Even then I blame Durant for ruining the parity of the NBA by running to a team he choked against. I'm still keeping MDA as a coach. The only solace I have is knowing that Durant did this because he wants to be considered better than Lebron and thinks if he wins more rings than him he'll get that, but I don't think anyone is fooled. Rockets did all they could do, CP3 going down was huge already going up against that stupidly stacked team. He settles the team down and prevents a lot of those GSW spurts just by his pace and controlling the game. Harden doesn't do that, no fault of his own, every player has flaws, even superstar players. That's why you need good complimentary players around them, the right ones fit for that particular star. Harden's flaws are mainly that he gets tired at a certain point. This usually affects his shooting and defense. Although his defense outside of like 2 games were pretty stellar actually.
Any ways, I've ranted long enough. I don't even care who wins the finals at this point. It hurts to be so close and to lose like that but I didn't expect to beat this team. But I think Harden and CP3 can get one with a few more moves and getting MDA more players he can apparently trust to play in the playoffs.
