Harden’s Concert Tour Starts on Schedule, Ends Clippers’ Season
Kyrie Irving (30 points, six rebounds, four assists, one turnover) and Luka Doncic (28 points, 13 assists, seven rebounds) led the way on Friday night as the Dallas Mavericks beat the L.A. Clippers 114-101 to advance to the second round of the playoffs. My forthcoming preview of the Oklahoma City-Dallas series will discuss in more detail how well Doncic and Irving performed versus the Clippers, but because the Clippers have "gone fishing" (as the TNT crew puts it) and will not be seen again until next fall this article will focus on yet another "team nobody wants to face" that everybody should want to face.
One unavoidable and sad headline for the Clippers is that Kawhi Leonard just cannot get right physically. Since leading the Toronto Raptors to the 2019 NBA championship, Leonard has had one healthy playoff run (during which the Clippers lost to the Denver Nuggets in game seven in 2020, with Leonard shooting just 6-22 from the field). Leonard missed the last six of the Clippers' 19 playoff games in 2021, missed the entire 2022 season due to injury, missed the last three of the Clippers' five playoff games in 2023, and missed four of the Clippers' six playoff games in 2024. He turns 33 next month, but he seems to have 45 year old knees: Leonard has not played at least 70 games in a regular season since 2016-17. There is no logical reason to believe that he will ever be healthy enough to lead a team on an extended playoff run.
The Clippers' second option is Paul "I call myself Playoff P" George. You can count on one thing from Playoff P: in more than half of his playoff series, he has shot .420 or worse from the field. He was his reliably unreliable self in 2024 versus the Mavericks, shooting .411 from the field, including 6-18 (.333) in game six and 4-13 (.308) in game five.
The best thing that happened to minimize the damage to Playoff P's reputation is that the Clippers signed James Harden to be the starting point guard and be the third scoring option.
The Harden "concert tour" kept rolling along after Rose's comments, with no end in sight.
This year, Harden disappeared in game five versus the Mavericks and he scheduled a 5-16 concert in game six as the Mavericks wrecked the listing Clippers. With Harden running the show, the Clippers shot .415 from the field, including .258 from three point range. The "stat gurus" rave about Harden's efficiency and insist that we should not rely on the "eye test." So--without even describing all of the ways that Harden ruins an offense and destroys team chemistry--we can just look at his individual numbers and his team's numbers and understand that it is very unlikely that he will ever be the best player (or second best player or third best player) on a legit championship contender. This was not an outlier performance, either--this is yet another line added to Harden's pathetic elimination game resume, which also includes nine points and five turnovers for Philadelphia in a 112-88 loss to Boston last year (that one will be hard for even Harden to top, but I believe that he can do it).
When the best player is out, the second best player disappears, and the third best player disappears, it is not surprising that a team loses. No further explanation is needed (but credit should be given to what Dallas did well, and as noted above, I will discuss that in an upcoming article).
However, I can hear the peanut gallery shouting, "But, but, but, what about Russell Westbrook? How can we blame this whole fiasco on him? The Lakers did it, so why can't the Clippers do it, too?"
There is no sugarcoating the reality that Westbrook did not post good numbers versus the Mavericks; he averaged playoff career-lows across the board—including 19.0 mpg, barely half his career average. A third of his field goal attempts were three pointers, well above his career norm.
It is worth remembering that in last year's playoffs--his first with the Clippers, after joining the team in midseason in the wake of the Lakers shipping him out and trashing his reputation--Westbrook averaged 23.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg, and 7.4 apg. Then, Westbrook played well at the start of this season before the Clippers traded for Harden. The Clippers slumped after Harden arrived, then played better after Westbrook volunteered to be the sixth man so that Harden could dribble the basketball until it was as flat as a pancake as the starting point guard. Westbrook broke his left (non-shooting) hand on March 1, had surgery, and came back in just three weeks. We regularly hear about LeBron James' ankle and other assorted ailments, and there are always injury alibis provided for Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid--but the fact that Westbrook is playing with a recently broken hand is never mentioned. Broken hand recovery time is typically at least two months, which means that the best case scenario is that Westbrook's hand is just now rounding into form--assuming that his injury was typical and that he did not reinjure it during the past five weeks. Whether due to injury or the design--or lack thereof--of the Clippers' offense, Westbrook spent much of the Dallas series camped out behind the three point line. To put it mildly, that is not a skill set strength for Westbrook, who is at his best on the move to the hoop with the ball in his hands. Of course, with Harden and George taking turns monopolizing the ball and bricking shots, there is not much room for Westbrook to get touches on the move.
Again, there is no denying that Westbrook was not productive versus the Mavericks--but it is burying the lede to focus on the fourth option who is playing with a recently broken hand instead of focusing on the chronically injured first option, and the disappearing acts performed by the second and third options.
Speaking of the invisible men, Playoff P has a player option after being tied for the NBA's seventh highest salary in 2024. Some "experts" suggest that the Philadelphia 76ers should use their salary cap space to bring in Playoff P for $50 million per season--and what team does not need a 34 year old with a long history of playoff underperformance? All the 76ers need after signing Playoff P is to bring in Chris Paul, "the best leader in the NBA." Paul's tremendous leadership was fully evident when the Golden State Warriors finished 10th out of 15 teams in the West before losing in the Play-In Tournament.
Harden was a bargain last season, ranking a mere 28th in salary. He is a free agent, and it will be interesting to see who ponies up $30 million or more per season to get an up close view of the full concert tour.
Labels: Dallas Mavericks, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, L.A. Clippers, Luka Doncic, Paul George, Russell Westbrook
posted by David Friedman @ 11:34 PM
4 Comments:
The first round did an excellent job getting rid of the most overrated teams in the playoffs: the Lakers, Clippers, Suns, Bucks, and 76ers. All five organizations are severely flawed in ways that might not be fixable and they all received way more media coverage than they deserved. If there are any underlying fundamental issues with a team, the playoffs will force those issues to bubble to the surface for everyone to see.
Michael:
You are correct that the playoffs expose the real identities of teams (and also individual players).
Kind of a good joke but weird as an insult considering how rare it was for anybody to make 13+ baskets in a game… Kyrie and Doncic each put up 5 concert dates in the 6 game series
Not to take away from your analysis I just don’t think it’s as damning as Jalen seems to joke
Kevin:
Many jokes that are overanalyzed no longer seem funny.
Jalen Rose's point is that Harden's playoff game field goal percentages do not look the way that a great player's should. "Concert tour" is a concise, funny way to make that point.
It would also be correct to assert that a good argument can be made that Harden is the worst playoff choker among players who have received the honors, recognition, and money that he has received--but that is not as concise or funny as what Rose said.
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