The Nets are arguably one of the worst teams in the league right now, with only 2 wins and 6 losses after Durant's injury absence, and a five-game losing streak before that. After losing consecutive games to the Warriors and Suns in the last two games, the Nets' opponents in this game are not very good, and they can also have two giants Harden and Irving on the road, and many fans are looking forward to ending their losing streak in this game.
The final result was unexpected by many people, although in the first half, the back-to-back Nets felt very hot, once established a double-digit lead, and temporarily led 62:54 at the end of the first half. The second half was easy to fight again, and the Kings found their form in the third quarter, trailing by just three points at the end of the quarter. In the final quarter, the Nets continued the slump of the third quarter on the offensive end, and there were many loopholes in the defensive end, and the Kings played a continuous offensive climax, and finally completed the reversal, losing 101:112 to the opponent and suffering six consecutive losses.
A large part of the reason why the Nets lost this game is due to the poor performance of the two giants, Irving and Harden. The former shot just 5 of 15 from the field, including 2 of 5 three-pointers, and only got 14 points, 1 assist and 4 turnovers. The latter played even worse, shooting only 2 of 11 from the field, including only 5 of 0 three-pointers, and only 4 points, 7 rebounds, 12 assists and 6 turnovers. In the fourth quarter, when the Kings set off a counter-attack, the duo combined to make only 2 of 9 shots and scored only 4 points.
Among them, this game can be called the worst game in harden's career on the offensive end. Although Harden was full of offensive desire in the opening stage of this campaign, he repeatedly encountered big hats and iron, resulting in the team's inability to further widen the point difference. Interestingly, when Harden went off the bench and Irving single-handedly led the team, the Nets instead played an 11-0 attack wave, opening up the point difference with a bang. It wasn't until the second quarter that Harden scored his first point of the game with an emergency jump shot, and only scored two points in the entire first half.
In the second half of the game, Harden's offensive state still did not get better, so Harden simply chose to stop his offense and instead turned to sending assists for his teammates, but in this quarter, Harden not only did not score a point, but also sent 5 mistakes in a single quarter, in this case, the Nets were constantly chased by the opponent. In the final quarter, Harden began to try more three-pointers, but in this quarter Harden still felt bad and continued to play iron, until the final 4 minutes and 20 seconds finally scored a layup. When the team needed him the most, Harden only scored 2 points in a single quarter, watching his opponent complete the turnover.
In the end, Harden only scored 4 points in this game, according to statistics, Harden's 4 points in a single game in the regular season was January 20, 2011, when he was still the sixth person on the team in the Thunder, and this game was also the lowest single-game scoring performance in a game that he had played more than 30 minutes so far in his career. It is worth mentioning that Harden's defense in this game is equally bad, and the lazy defense in the first half of the game allowed the Kings to get a lot of opportunities for empty three-pointers, and in the final quarter, because of the eye defense, the opponent easily scored a basket. In short, at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, Harden is the culprit of the team's loss.
This game is largely just a microcosm of Harden's performance this season, so far, Harden has played in 44 games for the Nets this season, averaging only 22.5 points, 8 rebounds and 10.2 assists in 37 minutes per game, shooting only 41.4% from the field and shooting only 33.2% from three-point range. In addition, there are 4.8 turnovers per game, including scoring per game and shooting percentages per game at a new low since leaving the Thunder, and the average turnover per game is also a new high in recent seasons.
Both in terms of statistics and on-court performance, Harden's performance this season has been extremely sluggish, and in the case of the Nets' inability to play Irving this season and Durant's injury, Harden has not done his role as a team giant to lead the team to victory. The reason why his performance is so bad is likely to be inseparable from the following points. First of all, Harden has turned 32 this season, and it is normal for Harden's performance to decline to a certain extent as he ages and injuries increase.
Secondly, since joining the Nets, Harden has entered a new stage of his career, because the team has Durant and Irving, as well as many very good role players, so Harden does not need to be as big as before, and many times the Nets need him to contribute to the organization of the team. In this case, this team is not Harden's team alone, and he must consider more factors on the field. Throughout the Rockets period, Harden did not score less than 5 points in a single game, and many fans also lamented that Harden dedicated his best years to the Rockets.
Finally, the league's rule changes this season are also important reasons, harden has not been able to get free throws this season as easily as before, which has also caused him to be greatly affected in many aspects of the offensive end. All in all, Harden has clearly not fully adapted to the change of rules this season, which is one of the important reasons for his current sluggish performance. At present, in Durant's absence, neither Harden nor Irving can lead the team to victory, which is a very dangerous signal for the Nets.
After losing this game, the Nets have suffered six consecutive losses, and the current record has reached 29 wins and 22 losses, which has fallen to the sixth place in the East. With Durant still absent, if Harden and Irving can't take on the responsibility of leading the team to victory, the Nets' journey this season will become very dangerous. But Harden's current poor performance has made Nets fans feel very cold, and if there is no change, then he is likely to be traded out of the team in the offseason.