James Harden's game-saving block does not free him from another playoff clunker-




James Harden has signaled that this after-season race will be different from his previous failures after playing just one game in Wednesday's Game 7 game of Oklahoma City Thunder. The three-time defending champion and one of Twitter's favorite lowlight targets won the game with a series of Rocket Rocks in his own defense, blocking Luguentz Dort by hitting the winning game. The highlight of the series will be Harden, with his legs outstretched, avoiding Dort's attempt to throw the ball away from him to preserve the legacy that may have shed light on the night's reality: this game was no different than any other Harden's big moment.


Also, the previous MVP appeared for a moment at a great moment, and it happened for the same reasons that always happen. Harden’s style of play doesn’t work well in the postseason, and one memorable moment won’t change that.


Harden shot 4-of-15 from the field in Game 7. The first face, but in the end, to some extent, the result was random. Harden usually does not go 1-for-9 on points-3. Lastly it's awesome depending on the process. In the biggest game of the season, with his teammates recovering from injuries, Harden has taken just 15 assists. Harden had only eight games in a regular season where he picked up an under-16 shotgun. Blame Dort's good defense is all you want, but last year, Kawhi Leonard managed to get 39 shots with Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons in his face. LeBron James, the star who did nothing more than Harden on many nights, averaged 23.4 attempts on the pitch in the Game 7s stadium, and sank under 20 with a single blow.


It’s the superstar’s job to control the offense in the big games of the season, but Harden, who is one of the most used players in history, has just added to the mysterious disappearance of his book. He still had two 2-of-11 night shootings with a loss close to him, for the first time in Golden State in 2015, and then reunited with Leonard's Spurs under 2017. the 2012 NBA Finals, and received only 37.5 percent of them.



Even Game 6 was a shocking show not to keep Harden’s big game. Russell Westbrook presided over the case as Harden picked up just one shot in the last four minutes of the competition. Houston played five full games at the time with the exception of Harden touching the ball, and in the sixth, his only touch came back to the starting point. Game 7 was different. Harden scored just four points in the fourth quarter.


A simple suggestion here is that Harden doesn’t want the ball at big times, but it’s probably not that easy. Harden has great games to play in his name even if they are overtaken by his worst villains. The obvious explanation is that the gargantuan batting load he carries all season is debilitating for him by the time the postseason arrives. Harden's love for ... night life may not be the right thing to do with it.


Mid-season hiatus provided theoretical recovery. Four months of rest could have allowed him to come in fresh after the season, but injuries to Westbrook and Eric Gordon forced him to carry a heavier load on the blast. The consistent three-point three-point losing streak in Game 4, the final absence of the series at Westbrook, supports the view that his legs are just tired.

Most of those who miss Harden’s post-season games are off the front line, but even if fatigue is a factor, it’s not a reason. Everyone is tired of the finals. The best players play with it. Whether it's a matter of booking habits or the burden placed on him by his team, Something needs to be changed to keep him fresh in the playoffs. Load management exists for a reason. Math suggests that a 0-for-27 shooting extension of 3 points in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals is just unfortunate, but that ignores the fact that when a team has only one shot creator and the shooter is too tired to create shots , his teammates often miss out on the ugly look they finally get.


There’s an argument that his free-throw numbers excuse some of his low-shot attempts, but it’s not the same as if Harden is consistent with his regular season’s production before. His free throw attempts have dropped from their regular season five seasons back, very often. Harden averaged 10.9 attempts for free throws per game in three regular seasons ... but only 8.3 in the same regular seasons. That should not surprise anyone. Whistles are unusually popular in the playoffs, especially in Game 7s. Tuesday's game between Denver and Utah, for example, had a total of 28 free throws. Harden almost hit that exact number in the regular season. His senior career is 27 years old. His nine attempts at Game 7, too, were below the average for his season.


That free throw hunt becomes a problem in a situation that discourages Harden's style of play. His 3 percent reduction has decreased from the regular season to the postseason for five consecutive years because he is unable to draw a bunch of three key mistakes, which he often sells to himself. Few phone rims make his driving less important. One type of case that is often the most important in the postseason is the one area down that Harden often overlooks. Chris Paul tried 37 mid-range shoots in the series. Harden took 20 ... during the whole regular season. You have rated one game each in this series.



Logic supports that profile. It is flawless in analytics and relies on more than enough sample, 3 pointers, layups and free throws away and far away from the most important gun on the ground. Those shots have made Harden apparently the most attacking player of the season in NBA history, but the thought process behind them ignores the critical differences between the regular season and the postseason basketball. The playoffs do not provide sufficient sample size depending on the measurement law. Self-defense removes the most beautiful look from the ground and forces the stars to strike a counterfeit look in less important areas. Paul has taken nine of the nine midfielders in the NBA mid-season this season, hitting 54 percent of them. Not surprisingly, he has been the NBA's leading scorer this season. Houston is guilty of hitting more than five strikes only once in the last six seasons. It came in the 2017-18 season, Paul’s only year as healthy as Rocket.


Paul probably shouldn’t be a better scorer than Harden. He is very young, and although he is not a top athlete, Paul has lost more than 35 years before Harden, who is still in his prime. But Paul’s extreme attack game gives him a deep bag of tricks to take away from when you count. Defenders do not know what he will do in the end times because he can do anything.


But Harden's game is focused on doing only a few things at such a high level that, night after night, it surpasses its homosexuality. But defending Harden in seven games makes him guessable. You will take a step, or you will drive. Houston doesn't even have a real screen to use the screen. Time makes it easier to protect him. Thunder, at the end of the series, settled in Houston's MVP.