On April 29, the NBA playoffs continued today, and the Clippers defeated the Mavericks 116-111 on the road to tie the score to 2-2. In the absence of the Clippers, Harden and George started with a hot hand and led the Clippers to a perfect start. Although the Mavericks set off a wave of counterattacks in the final quarter of the game to overtake the score, the Clippers were still better in the star matchup at critical moments. Despite Irving's great power, Harden scored consecutive inside throws, scored 15 points alone in the final quarter, and helped the Clippers repel the opponent's counterattack with George, and the Clippers also won the victory without danger and helped the team stop the decline.
As the offensive core of the team, Harden played 40 minutes in this game, including 12 of 17 shooting, 4 of 5 three-pointers, 5 of 5 free throws, 33 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, only 2 turnovers, tied with George for the team's highest score. It is worth mentioning that this round and the Mavericks series have been played 4 games, and Harden scored 22 points, 28 points, 21 points, and 33 points in four games, all of which are the highest on the team and the Clippers' playoff scoring champion. Looking at the Clippers' luxury lineup, there is no shortage of scorers at all, but I didn't expect that in the playoffs, Harden, who had transformed into a role, had to stand up and score, and as a result, he became the team's scoring champion as soon as he shot.
Throughout the playoffs, Harden averaged 26 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal and 1.3 blocks per game, shooting 54.1% from the field and 50% from three-point range, and his offensive efficiency was very high. Not only that, but while Harden is dominating on the offensive end, he also has a very good performance on the defensive end. After the game, according to the statistics of the data media StatMamba, in this year's playoffs, under the defense of Harden, the Mavericks' players shot only 41.8% from the field and 23.8% from three-point range. These two sets of data can show that Harden's performance in this round of games is not only the boss on the offensive end, but he also did not drop the chain on the defensive end, playing the role of the team's defensive gate.
Truth be told, so far in this series, Harden has been really impeccable, scoring the most points per game, and now he has made it to the 190 club. Fans who are familiar with Harden know that in the past, Harden was the core of the ball, and he supported the offense of the whole team by himself, so the defense had no energy and was not focused, which led to the sluggish performance in key games in the playoffs, and was also labeled as a "soft egg" by the outside world. Now looking at Harden's all-round offensive and defensive performance this year, it can be seen that he really wants to win, and he really proved himself in the game, not only becoming the scoring champion, but also not losing the chain on defense, tearing off the soft egg label with his own hands, this performance is really not black!
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