In the first round of the series with the Raptors, Harden's performance was particularly disappointing, in the case of Embiid's hand injury, Harden was not able to come forward, as one of the core of the team, he played very crotch in the game, especially in the G4 and G5 games, Harden's shooting efficiency is very low. The data shows that Harden's performance in G4 is 5 of 17 shooting, 22 points on 2-of-8 three-point shooting, and there are 4 mistakes. In the G5 game, Harden shot 4 of 11, and he only scored 15 points and made five more mistakes. With the team leading 3-0, Harden was unable to step up when Embiid was injured, and he pulled his crotch twice in a row, both of which the 76ers eventually lost, and the series scored 3-2.
So far in this series, Harden has not performed satisfactorily in any game, and for the team itself, with Embiid and Maxi, they are not so demanding of Harden, not expecting Harden to score 30+ points per game, and then hit a key goal in the last minute to help the team win. What the team asks of Harden is to grasp the shot, try to help the team in passing, and then contribute on the defensive end. For a player of Harden's level, the requirements are not high, but hardened in this year's playoffs, he played a very crotch-pulling performance, failed to complete his task, and the help to the team is not very large, and the performance is very disappointing.
So far in this year's playoffs, Harden has played in 5 games for the 76ers, he averaged 40.2 minutes per game, can get 18.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 9.2 assists, 18 turnovers in 5 games, the average number of turnovers per game is 3.6, and his overall shooting rate in the playoffs is only 37.3%, three-point shooting rate of 37.9%, which is very inefficient. He can only shoot 5.3 goals per game, which is less than his average free throws per game (6.5), and it can be said that if he did not hold the ball to break through and create fouls, Harden would have averaged even fewer points per game in this series.
Compared with Harden now, his performance can be described as very crotch-pulling, just like a changed person. He lacks self-confidence on the offensive end, does not have explosive power, and does not have a strong shooting grasp. In the first three games, Harden's performance was already very poor, but the team was in the stage of winning at that time, which masked Harden's crotch performance. And in the series of G4 and G5, with the 76ers losing, Harden's poor performance was also magnified, harden's defense on the court has nothing to say, he is very hard, but on the offensive end, he is indeed a bit weak, can not become the team's absolute offensive core. With Embiid injured, Harden was unable to carry the team's forward flag, and now he has seen a big decline compared to before.
After losing G4 and G5 in a row, this series has become less easy for the 76ers, the Raptors are definitely a competitive team, and the 76ers want to beat them in this series, they need to show the performance of the first three games, Harden as the core, he really needs to step up, play an influential performance in the game, share the pressure of Embiid. If he can't do that, the 76ers are really facing a reversal in this year's playoffs.