With an average of 12 points in the last three games, Harden's true form is revealed, and the Clippers may fall into the play-offs when they encounter a difficult schedule!
On March 26, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, and today the Clippers sat at home to welcome the challenge of the Pacers, before this game the Pacers lost to the Lakers, and the Clippers welcomed back Wei Shao, thinking that they could give the Pacers a losing streak, but the Clippers defeated the opponent in the fourth quarter, the team once fell behind by 20 points, and saw that there was no way back, Tyronn Lue also got off the core of the team early, and the team lost to the opponent 116-133.
The Clippers lost this game from the big picture that the Pacers aimed at the problem that Zubac couldn't pull out, Turner shot 4 of 6 from outside the three-point line, and dropped 24 points and 7 rebounds in the game, and in the details, the Clippers didn't do a good job of defense, they let the opponent get too many three-point openings, and Sika couldn't prevent it when he was killing inside, the Pacers shot 17 of 28 three-pointers in this game, and the three-point shooting rate was as high as 60.7%, and Sika got 31 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists on 12 of 20 shots.
"We're very soft now, we need to be tougher, we need a strong offensive and defensive mentality," was what Tyronn Lue said after the game, obviously he wasn't happy with the result of this game, and what was the main reason for the team's loss?
Xiaoka and George's performance in this game is not to say, Xiaoka shot 11 of 18 from the field, 1 of 2 from three-point range and got 26 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks, George shot 12 of 18 from the game, 2 of 4 from three-point range and got 26 points, 1 rebound and 3 assists, and even the sixth man Powell got 22 points and 3 rebounds, and if you want to say that the worst of the four cores, then it is Harden, who shot 3 of 7 from the field, and got 11 points, 3 rebounds and 7 assists from 1 of 1 three-point shooting, with a plus/minus of -24 and the worst on the team.
Harden doesn't play well we can attribute it to because Tyronn Lue made Zubac reduce playing time, no one blocked Harden, so it was difficult for Harden to attack, he didn't play well, but it doesn't seem to be this problem now, this is not the first time Harden played so badly, in the past three games Harden's performance has not been good, although he gave 14 assists against the Pacers, he scored 12 points on 13 shooting from the field, and 10 assists against the Trail Blazers, but only 15 points.
The average of the last three games is only 12.6 points, such a performance is really difficult to call the big core of the ball, the key offensive efficiency is not good, what is the reason for Harden's poor performance? Many fans joke that Harden has begun to show his true form in the face of high-intensity games, and he has been struggling to play tough battles. But one thing to say, I think Harden's poor performance may be related to his previous injury, Harden suffered a shoulder injury in the previous game against the Timberwolves, and he was not in good shape after returning.
Whether it is caused by a shoulder injury or not, now everyone is probably more worried about when Harden will be able to find his form, if he can't find his form, then it will be too difficult for the Clippers, after all, the current Clippers are not what they used to be, in order to get Harden, they sent Covington, Morris and Batum These outstanding blue-collar workers, the team's squad thickness has also declined significantly, and they can only rely on the four cores if they want to win now.
And Harden is the team's ball-holding core, he is responsible for connecting the team, if he doesn't play well, it's too difficult to win, and the key is that Harden's defensive attitude is not good recently, you must know that Harden was the team's defensive gate before, and he was even willing to go inside to fight the opponent's big center. Now there is a problem with the bad attitude, which may be the result of the team's consecutive losses, which were 26-5 at one point and then 18-22 in the past period.
I hope the Clippers can adjust in time, after all, if they lose again, then they may fall to the play-offs, after this loss, the Clippers' record came to 44-27, although the record is the same as the Pelicans, but because of the superior record in the matchup, the Pelicans rose to fourth, and the Clippers fell to fifth, but his fifth position may not be guaranteed, because the sixth Kings are now only 2 wins behind them.
The Clippers will face the Devils in the remaining games of the schedule, and they will face the 76ers, Magic and Hornets in the next three or four games, which is relatively easy, and then they will face the Kings, Nuggets, Jazz, Cavaliers, Suns, Jazz and Rockets, the Kings, Cavaliers, Nuggets and Suns are not worthy of the Clippers, and if they don't do well, they will fall into the play-off zone. And if the Clippers lose this season, they may have a difficult fork in the road in the offseason.
Harden is an expiring contract, the reason why he is willing to come is for the championship, if he finds that he still can't win the championship, he will most likely choose to leave, and George has not reached a contract extension, because he does not want to take a salary cut like George, and he may also leave with a player option in the offseason, and then the Clippers will change from a big team to a Leonard single core, so it will be even farther away from the championship. Speaking of which, what do you have to say about the current Clippers? Welcome to leave a message to discuss.