*Lapses into Ahmad Rashad’s voice* Our main man Isaac decided to dub Jim Ross over James Harden’s curtain kerfuffle above, which brought back memories from Thursday night, and the truly magnificent performance of The Bearded One in Game 2.
After Harden lost the ball — and in turn, any chance of getting up a game-winner — on the game’s final possession, we turned to our dog and told his innocent, doggy face: “Let’s hope the media doesn’t muck this one up.”
For the most part they didn’t, but castigating Harden for one play was going to be impossible for some media outlets to avoid. To actually place the blame on Harden for the loss is insipid commentary at its most reactionary. Anyone who does, shouldn’t be allowed to watch the rest of these NBA Playoffs, and certainly not the Western Conference Finals. Reading any such tepid take deserves this well-known rebuttal:
“At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
Harden made the right decision to go for the win rather than call a timeout after Harrison Barnes missed a reverse with under 10 seconds to play; the Rockets held a four-on-three advantage going the other way, and that’s superior to any ATO call five-on-five. Plus, any Harden accusation ignores the first 47:50 of the game. Also, it’s just bad, misleading sportswriting headline writing.*
Harden played one of the greatest individual playoff games we’ve ever witnessed, and we’re older than most of you, so we can remember — in vivid detail — every single one of Michael Jordan’s playoff heroics. Yes, for the most part MJ comparisons should be treated as codified hyperbole, but Harden was just that good in Game 2.
Not even Beard’s final line — a game-high 38 points (13-for-21 from the field, and three-of-six from deep), 10 rebounds, nine assists, three steals and just two turnovers (MVP Steph had six, which means mom is getting PAID) — explains just how incredible he looked at Oracle. While Rockets coach Kevin McHale, as well as Harden were a little more tight-lipped on Steph’s excellence, Dubs coach Steve Kerr wasn’t when it came to Harden. Since we didn’t record Kerr’s full presser, you don’t get a chance to watch him just shake his head at some of the shots Harden drilled in the loss.
They were incredibly difficult, just as hard as some of Steph’s routine makes. All-Defensive Second Team member Klay Thompson played Harden about as well as you can ask for in a wing defender, but there’s not much you can do when a player of Harden’s caliber is feeling it.
To place the onus on Harden for Houston’s Game 2 defeat is so ridiculous, we really do hope the NBA finds a way to ban anyone who does so from watching the rest of the 2015 NBA Playoffs. Individuals who claim he choked the game away for the Rockets are the worst kind of pseudo-analysts. Thankfully, most of the national media has avoided this easy and bereft-of-thought narrative, but some are still out there, and they shouldn’t be allowed to cover NBA basketball. It’s that simple.
Nobody was angrier at Harden after that final play than he was. The curtains leading back to the locker room know as much. James said after the game his Rockets “let it slip away,” and they did, but we want the morons who condemn Harden for “blowing the game” to slip away as well.
*A lot of bloggers and essayists don’t write their own headlines, so let’s try and avoid calling out any individual scribes on this, since we’re a tad protective of those talented men and women in the same profession as us.
