The Clippers lost to the Cavaliers on Jan. 30, ending their winning streak. The Cavaliers have won 10 of their last 11 games, losing to the second-place Bucks in the East, but the Cavaliers have also beaten the Bucks twice in 10 games, and although they are fifth in the East, they are a strong team in recent form.
In this game, the Big Four also played normally with Leonard, who scored 30 points, and the Clippers still lost. George fought with an injury, so he showed a crotch pull, although he was criticized, but it was understandable. Westbrook could have been dropped at any time, and his poor performance would have had little impact on the Clippers. It's mainly Harden, who has a lot of playing time, has the ball in hand, and has integrated the Clippers into his system. But if Harden doesn't perform well, the Clippers will definitely be limited.
Harden has had times when his stats and performance have been bad in the Clippers' previous games, but because the Clippers teammates are very aggressive, Harden's assist value is greater. But when the Clippers players are basically out of shape, even if Harden can assist a double-double, the threat is sharply reduced. At this time, the Clippers need a scoring Harden, but Harden can't score.
In addition to scoring degradation, Harden also had a number of low-level turnovers in this game. For example, eight seconds have not passed half time. At that time, the Clippers' ball was broken out of bounds by the Cavaliers in the backcourt, and Harden didn't notice the time when he held the ball, and he violated the rule for eight seconds, confusing Tyronn Lue on the sidelines. Another low-level mistake was when Harden stayed in the box for too long and was fouled by three seconds.
Harden was still not focused enough against the Cavaliers, and he didn't play today. Harden's low-level mistakes can be seen in his form. Fortunately, the Clippers are a strong team, so Harden's assists are effective most of the time, but Harden does have obvious problems himself.