Beijing time on May 5, 76ers away against the Heat, the final Heat to lead this round of the series 2:0, after the game Harden was bombarded by fans, looking back at the whole game Harden scored 20 points, but it is worth mentioning that he scored 15 points in the first half, according to this efficiency, how to bomb more than 25 points, but Harden only scored 5 points in the second half, which made Harden the biggest back of the team.
In fact, harden's first half and second half data differences since this season are very large, but in this game has been infinitely magnified, according to statistics in the playoffs of the 8 games, Harden can get 11.6 points and 5 assists in the half, but in the second half it slipped to 7.1 points and 4.4 assists, the gap between before and after is indeed not small, generally speaking, a player's first half data and second half data do not match what we call not stable enough, such players are most likely to be a number of nerve knife role players, but Harden is once the league's scoring king He is not a role player, why a superstar-level player will have such a problem in the playoffs.
In fact, we may wish to analyze what has changed hardened this season, first of all, the leg injury, the emergence of injuries, so that Harden's state of decline rapidly, although in the evaluation, Harden's hamstring injury will not affect his career progress too much. But Harden's situation is somewhat special, his lower limb strength is actually not bad, even in the guard position, Harden's weight belongs to the heavy guard first gear, so in the past few years he relied heavily on strong lower limb strength to do movement, and now the leg injury has made him lose his athletic ability, naturally there is a certain state decline, which can also explain why Harden has an offensive threat when the physical strength is sufficient in the first half, and once the physical strength of the second half is slightly reduced, the play is greatly reduced.
In addition to his own physical problems and physical reasons, Harden's slump in the second half is related to the 76ers tactics and Harden's own customary playing style. We may wish to recall that during the joint efforts of Harden and Paul Rockets, when Paul attacked with the ball, once he encountered the bag clip, Harden did not actively run but waited to receive the ball in place, but often the players in the bag clip did not have a good angle to transfer the ball, which made Harden shoot less, especially in the second half when the two sides were deadlocked and needed a player to stand up and attack, Harden's standing stick attribute was infinitely magnified, and in the second half of the game on the 5th, Maxi continued to encounter the bag clip, and could only force the shot, although the final hit rate was good But it also exposed the 76ers' tactical problems to the fullest. Harden waited for a pass in the second half, and instead of getting the ball, he lost the opportunity to connect the team.
In fact, at the beginning, Harden came to the 76ers to play the role of an organizer, he should stand up and transfer the ball many times when the players are wrapped up, instead of waiting for the ball to be shot in place. The combination of various reasons made Harden look so bad in the second half. The decline in physical fitness made Harden no longer able to score points in the second half as in the Rockets, blindly waiting for the pass, and also made his assist ability lose its threat in the second half, and finally there was a situation where the attack could not assist and lost. In fact, if the 76ers want to win, it doesn't have to be Harden's continuous pressure on the offensive end, it only needs him to be online on the assist end.