NBA Supergiant Exposes Weaknesses: Harden Small Card Doesn't Perform Badly!
This season, the NBA's regular season is two-thirds of the way through, the league is in good shape, and the class divide is very obvious. The Celtics hold the first spot, followed by the Cavaliers and Bucks, the Knicks and Pacers, respectively, and the winner will be fourth-place and will have home-court advantage in the first round, while the losing team will continue to fight in the playoffs. The fourth-place team in the West will leave everything from the Pelicans to the Lakers behind. Worst of all, James, Durant, and Curry are three legendary players who have to fight for two playoff spots. Compared to last season, Group 1 has generally been thriving this season. However, among the top teams in the West, Minnesota and the Thunder have quietly left the Clippers. Why can't the Clippers make it into February?
The Clippers defeated the Hawks 149-144 on Feb. 6 to go 3-4 in seven games. After three hard-fought battles, the Clippers defeated the Grizzlies by six points, the Warriors by five points, and the second-to-last Pistons by six points. But they lost four straight games and their home courts were destroyed: Minnesota scored 21 points, Pelicans scored 11, Thunder scored 22 and Kings scored 16. First of all, we have to figure out that Tyronn Lue is indeed making a mistake on purpose, Willis lets Harden play, Tucker plays, Harden gets the ball less, George gets the ball less, and Harden's position on the court becomes less important. Harden is really tired, and his shooting percentage is constantly decreasing. And in the playoffs, they can also use other ways to deal with Harden and Leonard. But it was George who overcame this difficulty first.
In the first 56 games of the season, George made 52 appearances, which is a very high number, but George was injured 30 percent of the times. I talked about some of the key moments, like when George had a groin injury against the Warriors in mid-December; Note**A week after the calf, George fell ill. In the game against the Bucks at the end of January, George had serious problems with his groin, but he still maintained his excellent form, 5-of-17, 12, 13, 11, 13, 3-of-16, 18 points against Minnesota, 3-of-15, 7, 6-of-16, 14, etc.! Kenny missed the game against the Lakers in the last game due to a knee injury. George played the best game for the Pistons: 33 points and five rebounds on 14 of 24 shots, not very strong, but very strong.
Look at these two numbers! The Clippers have lost four of their seven games, ranking 23rd in offensive efficiency and 24th in defensive efficiency! In addition, Harden's assists and shooting percentage are related to the team as follows: In November, Harden averaged 62 assists +178%, while the Clippers have a win rate of just 357%。In December, Kazakhstan averaged 96 assists while also improving 22With a 2% shooting percentage, the team's win rate is 846。In January, Kazakhstan played an average of 96 assists, play 203%, helping the team to 80% victory; In February, Kazakhstan averaged 7, an assist, a rebound, a rebound, and an assist, while his team only had a 60% chance of winning! To say that Harden is not tired at all is a lie, he has played 51 games in the Clippers, without Harden, he can't get the ball at all, let alone Wei Shao! That's what Harden does, and he can pass the ball to others.
This season, only Leonard has one scoring title, while Harden is the fifth-ranked scoring champion, which makes many people feel that Harden should be more popular, and Leonard will be more popular. As long as Leonard is not given a chance, then the Clippers' game will be very tough! Leonard's shortcomings are that he is too poor in ball control, prone to mistakes, and his vision is not wide enough! Although Harden has 63 this seasonHe shoots 8 percent from the field, ranking 40th in the league, but his three-point shooting percentage is below 50 percent, and when his shooting efficiency decreases, his scoring comes mostly from three-point range. Harden is really not good at shooting at the top of the arc, and Harden's layups are getting less and less powerful. Willis' salary, on-court pace, offensive and defensive ability are all impeccable, but what about George?
George's duty, he didn't do it! In fact, George's role in the team is very simple, which is to shoot and defend. But since January, George's ball control has improved dramatically, his mistakes have increased, he keeps dribbling the ball, and then some difficult shots, but he can't get rid of his defense, which doesn't do anything for him! Tyronn Lue wants to reduce Harden's ball-handling ability so that he can find a backup in the playoffs, and the Clippers' blocking level is not high, except for Harden, George, and Mann, everything else is a problem. George's improvement during this period is really eye-catching, his offensive efficiency ranks ninth in the league, pure efficiency ranks 15th, and BPM can also rank in the top 20, but Harden is on top in front and Leonard is on top in the back, and he is a melon-eating crowd.
But at the critical moment, Leonard and Harden were gritting their teeth and holding on, and George turned out to be the starter! Serious groin injury aside, he clearly had a say in the game, but his performance was completely different. George is 150th in the league in shooting percentage this season, and if he can be an All-Star, then he can also earn the team a first-round pick, but I want George to respect his teammates instead of waiting for his contract to expire and bragging about being a superstar, and when you leave, the team needs you again, what else can you do?