Lost 23 points, lost 19 points! The most overrated super giant in the playoffs, you really can t win the championship

is different from the regular season. The offensive rhythm in the playoffs is faster, the intensity of the confrontation is greater, and the quality of the stars is higher, especially in key games and critical moments of the game, which is often the time to test a team to be the star. In the NBA tiebreak battle, there is never a lack of superstars' personal performances. In the final tiebreak between the Heat and the Spurs in 2013, James scored 37 points and scored a win-win mid-range shot, leading the Heat to win a championship trophy with extremely high value. In addition, James also scored 45 points twice against the Celtics G7 in the second round in 2008 and the Pacers G7 in the first round in 2018, becoming the only player in NBA history to tiebreak 40+ for many times. In the 21st 2021 Eastern Conference semi-finals between the Nets and the Bucks, the two teams fought to the tiebreak battle. G7 Durant made 17 of 36 shots in the game, scoring 48 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists.

But unfortunately, the Nets still lost overtime, which also became the last glory of the fantasy Nets back then. There were two turning points. One was that Irving was injured and reimbursed by a foot-up. The other was that Durant's three-pointer crossed the line at the final victory of the G7, and the three-pointer turned into two points. This slight mistake led to the game entering overtime. In the end, the Nets lost desperately, but in that round of KD series, he really tried his best to overturn everything. In the first round of the 23rd playoffs, Curry scored 50 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists in the tiebreak battle with the Kings, breaking the Kings' dream of breaking through the dark horse in one fell swoop, and becoming the first player in history to break through 50 points in the tiebreak battle. Now the holder of the highest score record in a single game in the tiebreak is Tatum. In the same 23 years, facing the 76ers in the Eastern Conference semi-finals, Tatum scored 51 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals, and there were no mistakes.

Being able to create miracles in a tiebreak game is the basic quality of being a superstar, with only a few exceptions. Even if he can earn a lot of personal honors during the regular season, be the scoring champion for the rest of the time, and win the MVP, he has never been able to make a breakthrough in the playoffs. The more he reaches a high-intensity game, the more he reaches a key game, the more he performs, the more he is talking about James Harden. In this year's playoffs, Harden and the Clippers were eliminated in the first round again. They were full of confidence before. The Clippers were in a state of great momentum at the end of the regular season and ended with 8 consecutive victories. They won the buzzer-beating tickets to the playoffs. All players were healthy during the playoffs, and Leonard could occasionally show the shadow of his peak period. The Clippers' lineup was also extremely deep, and Zubac, who was in charge of Kic, was in charge of the inside.

However, the Clippers obviously underestimated the Nuggets' strength. The Nuggets began to fully awaken in the playoffs and faced the Clippers until the tiebreak. Both teams have multiple All-Star players. The tiebreaker is the game, which side of the stars are in better shape. Unexpectedly, none of the stars in the two teams exploded, but Harden's "reverse explosion" has become the most critical factor affecting the outcome of this game. After the game, Harden made 2 of 8 shots, scoring only 7 points, 5 rebounds and 13 assists, and the Clippers finally lost 19 points. Looking at the game, Harden's poor state is not only reflected in the data, but his offensive desire is gone. Even if he ends at the basket, he always wants to make a foul. He cannot return to defense in time after falling to the ground, and he has slowed down the Clippers' offensive rhythm. When chasing the points, Harden didn't have the courage to take action, and often blamed his teammates after dribbling. In this game, the Clippers once lagged behind the Nuggets by as much as 35 points. It is worth mentioning that the last team that fell behind in G7 in the playoffs was the 76ers in 23 years. At that time, the 76ers lost to the Celtics with 23 points. There was also Harden in that game. Harden's game data was 3 of 11 shots, scored 9 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists, which was exactly the same as this year's G7 game. It was also this game that the opponent's star Tatum scored 51 points, and the gap was obvious. In fact, Harden's key battles have always been disappointing. He has played tiebreakers throughout his career, averaging 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 7.9 assists, 2.6 steals and 1.3 blocks, with a shooting percentage of 35.5% and 22.4% of three-pointers, which is inefficient. Harden averaged only 10.8 points per game in the last five games of the King of Heaven, with a shooting percentage of 28% and a three-pointer of 16%.

Is Harden really not capable? That may not be true. He was selected as the All-Star 11 times and won the points for three consecutive years. Even though he transformed into a playmaker in the later stage of his career, Harden's explosive scoring power was still not buried. Just this year's regular season, Harden just scored 50 points in a single game against the Pistons. Then why did Harden lose himself as soon as he arrived in the playoffs? On the one hand, it is because he is not as energetic, has no leadership style, and has no blood in the game. As the core of the team, he doesn't even dare to shoot, and always wants to hand the ball over to others to end. Doncic, a star who also takes into account the organization and connects the team, is always a must-fight for the ball in the game. Even if the team is behind, it feels like he is ready to die, but Harden cannot do it in the playoffs. Even at the media conference after losing, Harden escaped himself. In the past three losses this year, the Clippers lost the game in the last three times in the playoffs, Harden left the stadium directly, did not accept interviews from reporters, and did not speak.

On the other hand, Harden has suffered repeated setbacks in the playoffs, which is probably a psychological shadow, especially in the Rockets era, he could never pass the Warriors hurdle. The more critical the playoffs came, the more Buddhist Harden played, and winning or losing was irrelevant, and he was likely to not win. I don’t know how many years Harden’s career will remain, but his hopes for his first championship should be quite slim.