I always thought thought this thread was stupid with Harden willing some of the worst teams into the playoffs and had me believing that he was that man. Tonight without their MVP against the reigning Eastern Conference Champs in their home court and dropping 45 is great.
Getting a game against the celtics without embiid. Harden still has something in the tank. Pretty sure the haters on here are just waiting for him to falter to start the choking calls again
Looks like 'our Jimmy' finally had his signature playoff game- at least that's how Bill Simmons / sports media will frame it, for those who care... I'm more impressed that he did it all with old-man guile and in his, err, rubenesque physique; kinda looks like a guy who just stepped out of his mail truck and hit the local court to do some damage. Old-guy salute...
He always has that in him. And this was Game 1. How will he come out the next game? More than anything else, he always seemed wildly inconsistent in the playoffs, and didn't show up in the big games.
if it was a jimmy butler performance harden would have had 18 fre-throw attempts.. harden only needed 4
Only lunatics prefer to have KPJ as our PG over Harden. Not one player on this roster's best case scenario is this "washed" version of Harden.
Harden destroyed lin legacy lol. Poor Asian sensation holding onto so much hate according to the biggest one DD harden is finished
Despite the repetitious chant of playoff-choking bum, he has a career playoff average of 23 points 5 boards 6 assists on 58.5% TS which is pretty good.
Context matters to some of us just not the haters. Harden falters vs curry + superfriends and haters nail choker to his name. Literally no one in the West has taken curry and super friends out, but only Harden gets called choker. Man gets so much disrespect that folks on here were saying Thompson > Harden
Harden is brilliant. I'm so happy for him. Playing against the Celtics on their home court without Embiid, and leading Philly to a huge win. KD and Kyrie got swept by the Celtics last year.
23 ppg only because of his lower usage in okc. Harden averaged 29 ppg in his playoff career with the rockets
Harden’s career is really underrated. He is already top 25 all time in WS and is likely to finish ahead of Kevin Durant and inside the top 10 all time. Next season he should pass Kobe, West, Hakeem and Bill Russell… in a couple years he will pass Shaquille O’Neal and KG. The only active players ahead of him are LBJ, KD and CP3. He should pass KD soon and if he plays long enough, CP3. If he plays 4 more years, and even missing half the games - he should finish around 9-10th all time. For perspective, Curry is like 45th all time and Bird is like 30th and Magic 25th. By VORP Harden is already inside the top 20 and has a very good chance to finish above Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and others. He is on pace, conservatively to finish 7th all time in VORP (assuming he only plays 3 more seasons)… finishing just ahead of Tim Duncan and right behind Garnett… with every player above him playing until close to 40. His advanced stats and values have him as the 3rd best player of the post Jordan era, behind CP3 and LBJ…
A Durant and CP3 vs Harden and Biid Finals would be interesting for sure. No doubt. All the midrange and step backs.
