On January 24, Beijing time, the NBA Nets lost 125-136 to the Timberwolves. Irving played in this game, but Harden only scored 13 points, 5 boards and 13 assists on 4-of-13 shooting. The 13 assists were indeed eye-catching, but harden also made 6 turnovers, close to the 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, which overshadowed the 13 assists. After adding these 6 mistakes, Harden has surpassed Westbrook and officially become the NBA's turnover king this season.
Prior to this matchday, Westbrook topped the league's turnovers list with 191 turnovers. Harden, on the other hand, made 190 turnovers and ranked second. On this matchday, Harden made 6 turnovers, while Westbrook made only 3 turnovers. As a result, Harden has surpassed Wei Wei less than 2 times, officially becoming the NBA's mistake king this season.
In fact, if you count the number of errors per game, Harden has already surpassed Westbrook. Harden has played just 41 games this season, while Westbrook has played 48. Therefore, in terms of the average number of mistakes per game, Harden's 4.8 times is far more than Westbrook's 4.2 times. And as Westbrook plays more carefully with the Lakers, he will have fewer turnovers per game in the future. Harden was the Nets' number one choice when Durant was injured, and the number of turnovers would only increase.
While the number of turnovers doesn't fully measure a player, it does say at least part of the story. This season's NBA assist king Paul currently averages only 2.3 turnovers per game, for a total of only 102. Harden and Westbrook, as juniors, really need to learn from Paul. Harden, in particular, as the Nets' number one starting point, needs to control mistakes, which is also key to the improvement of the team's defense.
Taking this game against the Timberwolves as an example, although Harden did suffer some penalty controversy, the damage caused by 6 mistakes to the team offset the help of 13 assists to the team. As a qualified helmsman, you should think more about the big picture and not be too casual. Otherwise, the prospects for the Nets this season are still very worrying.