On May 4, Beijing time, the Clippers defeated the Mavericks 101-114, and stopped in the first round with a score of 2-4. In this game, the Clippers felt the fear of being dominated after Doncic and Irving combined, Doncic had 18 points and 7 assists in the first half, Irving scored 28 points in the second half, and the offense and defense of the Big Three of Harden, Wei Shao, and George could not be compared with the dual-core, and many people felt that even with Leonard, the Clippers could not beat Doncic and Irving.
After the game, Harden and Irving hugged and entered the player tunnel lonely, and some American media have begun to say that "Harden has a high probability of no championship for life".
Harden was interviewed after the game: With our lineup, we should have been able to play to the end to be the team that won the championship, but health is a big part of it, Kowye wanted to play him and did everything he could, he played well throughout the regular season, and the team had high hopes for the playoffs, which is undoubtedly frustrating.
In this game, Harden fought 43 minutes and 22 seconds, 5 of 16, 0 of 6 three-pointers, 6 of 7 free throws, 16 points, 13 assists, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block and 1 turnover, shooting 31.3% and 41.9% true shooting rate.
In the first round of the series, Harden averaged 40.3 minutes per game, scored 21.2 points, 8 assists, 4.5 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block, with a shooting rate of 44.9%, a three-point shooting rate of 38.3%, and a free throw shooting rate of 90.6%.
NBA reporter Michael Schmidt wrote after the game: Both Harden and the Clippers are interested in reaching a contract extension this summer, the only doubt is what amount of contract the two sides will eventually agree on, Harden's salary this season is 35.64 million, in addition to this, the Clippers also hope that George can accept a contract below the maximum salary, and the Clippers intend to reach a contract extension with George/Harden this summer.
After the news that the Clippers and Harden both wanted to reach a contract extension, Harden directly appeared on the first hot search in the United States.
Although Harden played well in this series, he still swallowed a number of shameful records: 1. Breaking the first-round record for 7 consecutive seasons, the last time was the 15-16 season;
2. 1-10 in the last 11 series of life-and-death battles;
3. Harden has 16 games in the playoffs with a shooting rate of 20% or less, and Joko Zhan Cuduka has 11 games;
4. Harden has a 1-6 record in the playoffs with a 1-6 record and a winning rate of 14.3% when he falls behind 2-3 in the playoffs;
Text/Yan Xiaobai's basketball dream