Upset 11 games and 9 losses, start the playoff mode early! NBA pseudo-supergiant, it's hard to earn respect

This season's NBA regular season has entered the final stage, on the Eastern side, the Celtics locked the first early, and the Bucks have no big problem with the second, from the third Cavaliers to the eighth 76ers in the big melee, divided into two levels, Cavaliers + Knicks + Magic for third, Pacers + Heat + 76ers for sixth. And the West side is interesting, since November last year, the Nuggets + Timberwolves + Thunder have been entangled together, in early February this year, the Clippers briefly topped the first place in the West, and then fell quickly, but this drop is a straight decline. And the Kings + Mavericks + Suns compete for sixth, the Lakers fight for eighth, and the Warriors and Rockets fight for tenth. With the exception of the Lakers, all other teams have their own competitors. The top three teams in the play-in range are all involved, except for the Clippers and Pelicans.

On February 7, the Timberwolves and Thunder lost at the same time, and the Clippers were pushed to the first place in the West, but then the Clippers lost to the Pelicans and Timberwolves in succession, and gave up their positions. The American media gave such a set of data, after the All-Star weekend, when the Clippers faced a team with a winning rate of more than 50%, they lost 9 in 11 games! It was supposed to be 9 losses in 10 games, but the Rockets won 9 consecutive games and forcibly lifted themselves above the 5 percent win rate threshold, which just retained the last trace of face for the Clippers. Take March as an example, even if you lose to the Bucks twice, you will lose to the Hawks by 17 points, the 76ers will lose by 14 points, and the Pacers will lose by 17 points.

Let's start with Harden. This season, Harden is averaging 17.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 8.5 assists on 11.5 shots per game, shooting 43%+39% from the field. How important is Harden's improvement of data to the Clippers? Harden scored 20+ games, the Clippers won 18-5, and Harden assisted 10+ games, and the Clippers had a 20-4 record! To put it simply, Harden on the offensive end, as long as the score and assists accounted for one of them, the Clippers would not have much problem winning, after all, he was the team's default ball-handling core, for which Tyronn Lue deliberately sacrificed George's ball-handling single. But in these 11 games and 9 defeats, Harden averaged 16.2 points and 8.3 assists per game, looking at the data, it is not much different from the season average, but like playing the Pacers, 1 three-point shot in 34 minutes, playing the Timberwolves 0 of 10 and scoring 4 points, losing to the Bucks 16 shooting 13 points, the efficiency is too poor.

If Harden's offense is unstable, what does he mean for the Clippers? Let's list a few statistics to understand: This season, the Clippers can make the opponent score 1.21 points per round of offense and defense, which is the same as the Hawks, the bottom of the league! And the opponent's conversion offensive shooting rate is 56.4%, the worst defense! When Harden was with the 76ers last season, the 76ers could score 1.17 points per game, the sixth from the bottom in the league, and this problem is obviously related to Harden, who is not timely and slow, and he is the closest part of the team's offense to defense. Leonard has said more than once this season that the team is playing with talent, and the attitude of hard work is not enough! To put it bluntly, the defensive performance is too bad! Harden is already slow, and the Clippers do not have a small lineup effective No. 5 position, and when retreating, they have both speed and confrontation, which can only be supported by pepper.

The previous two consecutive defeats to the Trail Blazers were because the Trail Blazers were the team with the worst offensive and defensive conversion efficiency this season, with only 1.02 points per round. Since playing the All-Star weekend, Harden's overall performance has obviously declined rapidly, including after returning from a previous shoulder injury, he scored 9 points in 3 of 10 with the Hawks, and it didn't feel good to play the Trail Blazers, in the words of the Los Angeles columnist, Harden seems to have formed a kind of inertia: he knows that the team has a small card, there is Paul George, the bench and Powell, plus the energy injected by Wei Shao after returning to the team, Harden himself only needs to dribble slowly through the half court, and then hand over the ball. Even if Xiaoka signaled Harden to attack the attack many times, Harden didn't pay much attention to it!

It can only be said that Harden started the playoff mode, and after the previous period, including the Rockets and Nets, as well as the 76ers period that frustrated him, he is no longer willing to take on more responsibilities. This was evident in the playoffs a few years ago, including the infighting with Paul during the first battle, Paul dribbled and attacked, and Harden didn't pass half the half, I believe many fans were impressed. It doesn't matter if Harden is not aggressive, or that Harden's ability is declining as he gets older, he can't support the superpower title, and he won't be like Xiaoka and George, who strive to stabilize the basic performance of 20+ per game, he is subjectively unwilling to do this, you can't wake up a person who is pretending to be asleep. Why did Rivers Sr. always criticize Harden last season? Is it all Rivers Sr.'s fault?

Since Harden left the Rockets, he has not been seen in various honorary awards, even if he took the Nets to the top of the East with the remnants, the MVP list is outside the top five. In fact, Harden is still the same Harden, maybe he can make people see the performance of dreaming back to his peak at some times, but most of the time, he can only be viewed as an ordinary point guard, especially in the playoffs, Harden will be downgraded. It's no wonder that the league and some media don't pay attention to Harden, Harden should really think about how he can contribute more energy to the championship. Instead of relying on others, even if your dreams come true, you won't be able to earn real respect.