Spurs G5 & 6 Finally Solved?: Was Harden Playing Through A Concussion?

Pop loves hard plays unless it's on kawhi. Then it's cheap and soils the haloed ground that is the court.

 

To me James checked out the gameplan by MDA in gm6. Which had James guarding Aldrige & Gasol, defensive rebounding vs Aldrige & Gasol, bringing the ball up, scoring, setting up teammeates and playing 45mins. He played horribly, the team played crappy amd MDA was outcoached by Popovich (again). There is enough blame to go around.

 

Nice work, @DonKnock.

If it's true that getting knocked in the head clouded him enough to affect his play to that degree, we also need to consider that he refused to come out, likely realizing that the team had no shot whatsoever without him. That's hero stuff, right there.

The problem is that Harden himself has made it difficult to totally buy into this idea, because he's had a few of those games every year in which he just looks lost and it makes you wonder if he's even trying. None of them were in a playoff series, though, at least not to this degree.

 

I think James got tired of carrying a very heavy load and became frustrated with a coach who had decided to only play 7 guys against a tough, deep and well coached Spurs squad. They Rox had finally asked too much of their star and he was running on fumes. They had to build a better roster my friend. No excuses they lost to a better team last year. There is enough blame to go around for the organization as a whole.

 

part in bold I'm sure everyone can agree on especially the last statement since they're all facts only biased or uninformed casual fans and analysts would even deny those truths

now question is if it was compounded by

1) concussion/s after getting hit/s on the head
2) he was actually physically/mentally exhausted/fatigued/injured from load he'd been carrying, defensive pressure & focus, and beating thru the season and especially in the playoffs with MDA's 7 man rotation for pretty much the whole year specifically against a very physical and "deep and well-coached" spurs team
3) james is a quitter and ain't as competitive night in night out especially on the biggest game of the season as compared to cp3, lebron, wb, steph, kd, pg

mda, morey, cp3, tuck, lma sure it ain't #3

 

Really appreciate @DonKnock's investigative post. Feels like a very credible situation and makes a lot more sense on what happened afterward. Quite frankly it was something I always suspected. Too bad the larger media won't consider this conclusion.

 

<conspiracy theory> maybe this was the reason why Les suddenly decided to sell the Rockets. The Rockets will have their best player as damaged goods and indebted to Harden for shutting up about it and/or all the fines and lawsuits if it gets out. Either way that's very bad for Les' pockets now or later. So he decided why not just cash in and stop dealing with that </conspiracy theory>

 

Are you sure he had a concussion? Or was it an irregular heartbeat?

 

like clockwork.. everytime the rockets about to lose or harden gets injured you slither out of your game 6 rock..

hows your mavs doin?

and how much did you buy your ginobli jersey at the goodwill store?

 

People who make arguments about NBA superstars being "chokers" or "clutch" or "mental midgets" do not understand NBA basketball.

It's not a thing. Some people save their energy for the playoffs (Lebron), but there is no way you get to the level of a guy like James Harden if you're afraid of any moment on any stage. It's like everyone has already forgotten about the 2015 playoffs...

Yeah, he has struggled a bit before, especially in seasons such as last year when the Rockets played two top five defensive teams who were both playing for their playoff lives... But that kinda thing is why almost everyone's offensive efficiency declines in the playoffs. And it tends to be even worse for a player in Harden's situation who has never had a good, creative 2nd option (while being the first option). That makes it a good bit easier for defenses to game plan for him.

I think/hope that this is the year that begins to change...

 

preach on

these chumps can't even name a star who could have been more successful than harden with last years roster with with dekker and harrel getting meaningful minutes and mr 7 man rotation coach against 2 to 4 star super teams

the problem is whats around harden not harden. homers here act like the rockets without harden was some championship bound team

that's why Morey extended him to max extension and that's why cp3, tucker, and lma decided to bandwagon with Harden with lebron seriously thinkin about it

 

I also just can't believe how many likes that post got... You'd think we were 4-20 right now, not 20-4. Or you'd think that Harden wasn't the only player to get the Rockets to the WCF in the last 20 years (with 2/5 of his starting lineup injured, and his "co-star" being an overrated crybaby). I honestly was staring at that image for like five minutes trying to figure out if I was misunderstanding its meaning. Can't believe how many Rockets "fans" still hate on James Harden.

Doesn't make any sense that any fan wouldn't be behind him.

 

most are LOFs

some WB, Kobe, Lebron, Tmac fans

a few Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, Portions, Dwert, McHale, JB, Brewer fans

few more OJ Mayo, Klay, Wiggins, Paul George, Reddick fans

and a dallas/ginobli fan

 

He wouldn’t have made those two free throws if he were concussed. Having said that he did play like he was in game 6.

 

It's definitely lopsided: If you're a superstar, you have to perform well in the playoff 90% of the time minimum to be able to avoid playoff criticism. Play well less than that and they'll focus on the lesser percentage that you played poorly.

WTF are you talking about? You can have a concussion without having double vision or depth perception issues.

 

And to be honest, when I see what Harden is doing this year and compare it to these lowlights from that Game 6, the theory starts to seem pretty plausible*:



* At least more plausible than he was great in games 1-4.75, then was really tired for the last 1.25.

 

I think this is a valid point. I believe he received another concussion at the end of Celtics game 12/28/17.

 

Can we close that chapter?!