WCSF: (1) Los Angeles Lakers vs (4) Houston Rockets, Part 1 | Series Tied 1-1

[evilpimp972]

Rondo playing makes this a closer contest, honestly.

[evilpimp972]

Harden will stop himself. The GB told me he's a playoff choker.

Read on Twitter

He has averaged 29/7/6 on 58% TS in the playoffs since 2013. He's been one of the best playoff performers of the past decade. Shows how dumb most fans are.

LOL just shows how easily numbers can be exploited, context matters.

I still wonder why he can't match his RS numbers though, it's so odd.

[Dupp]

Meh it’s not about his regular season numbers. Harden is pretty great in the post season but has had a lot of mental meltdowns and no shows in really big games and moments. Game 7, despite the block was another example of that.

Oh well he dominates this game and if they win this series no one will remember the okc series.

[TheDiesel36]

I stand by my Houston in six predictions, dominant big men in Howard and McGee doesnt seem to be a big problem.

[evilpimp972]

Read on Twitter

AD at the 5 is NOT the answer

[Dupp]

The sample size of Magee and AD is so small.

AD at the 5 is the answer. Some big lineups but LA can be really successful with AD at the 5... However they need to put shooters around AD and lebron. Some of the lineups today were horrific.

[LesGrossman]

:x

Completely forgot because they got clogged but lebron dunk on Westbrook was nasty

I thought it was a charge

Probably hit they’re never gonna give that to the defender

No charge, slow mo showed Westbrook was in the circle.Too bad Bron didnt show up outside of two or three plays. Passing to their super max all star Alex Caruso for the rescue in the clutch isnt gonna cut it.

[Bergmaniac]

Such a weird game. Lakers played as if it was a back to back scheduled loss in January, no energy whatsoever, Bron and AD too passive, and some absolutely idiotic turnovers. And what the hell was Vogel thinking playing Rondo 17 minutes in his first game back after 7 months without competitive basketball... Amazing game by Harden and Eric Gordon really stepped up in the decisive stretch in the 4th quarter. Houston's D was impressive too, Tucker and Covington were fantastic on that end.

Lakers should still win this, Westbrook still doesn't look in top shape physically, and Bron will wake up soon, but they are making it harder than it should be.

[NippySudz]

Read on Twitter

When the Rockets play the Clippers, it will be unstoppable force vs immovable object

while that is true, the Clippers played a defensively challenged Mavs team and the Rockets played an offensively challenged OKC team.

We'll they held the Lakers underneath 100pts so it has to mean something

Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using Tapatalk

[WHITE_HOT_HEAT]

Typical sloppy game from the Lakers.. expected after the rest and complacency. They'll bounce back after today. It'll be tough though. Rockets will give them the best fight because of their playing style. Next round will be easier though.

[Raps in 4]

Read on Twitter

He has averaged 29/7/6 on 58% TS in the playoffs since 2013. He's been one of the best playoff performers of the past decade. Shows how dumb most fans are.

LOL just shows how easily numbers can be exploited, context matters.

I still wonder why he can't match his RS numbers though, it's so odd.

His playoff numbers are virtually identical to his regular season numbers.

And what context are you talking about that stats can't back it up?

[Dupp]

:x

I thought it was a charge

Probably hit they’re never gonna give that to the defender

No charge, slow mo showed Westbrook was in the circle.Too bad Bron didnt show up outside of two or three plays. Passing to their super max all star Alex Caruso for the rescue in the clutch isnt gonna cut it.

[Hans1984]

Awful. Didn't look like the lakers players gave a f about wining this game.

[California Gold]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29815297/lebron-james-says-lakers-got-feel-rockets-speed-game-1-loss

Haha LeBron. “We got a feel for their speed”.

This is the 3rd time they’ve played this iteration of the Rockets and the Rockets speed, at least offensively, has been the same the last 3-4 years. Defensively though, there’s nothing the Lakers can do to slow down how quick the Rockets recover other than playing hot potato with the ball.

[evilpimp972]

He has averaged 29/7/6 on 58% TS in the playoffs since 2013. He's been one of the best playoff performers of the past decade. Shows how dumb most fans are.

LOL just shows how easily numbers can be exploited, context matters.

I still wonder why he can't match his RS numbers though, it's so odd.

His playoff numbers are virtually identical to his regular season numbers.

And what context are you talking about that stats can't back it up?

https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/2019/05/12/james-harden-continually-struggles-in-closeout-games-vs-warriors/

It's about his numbers in elimination games. It's quite simple in fact, in every game that James Harden has no pressure to win he can still perform at a high clip and be lethal, in nearly every game in his playoffs career that he faced elimination he had shortcomings.

When you call someone "the best offensive player ever" we do expect more. We have the right to expect more, to see not only a good Harden but a GREAT Harden.
And yes in a year with more scoring than ever, I expect him to perform on par to his RS form, because we use these numbers to conclude that he is the best offensive weapon ever, not 29/7/6.

[Raps in 4]

LOL just shows how easily numbers can be exploited, context matters.

I still wonder why he can't match his RS numbers though, it's so odd.

His playoff numbers are virtually identical to his regular season numbers.

And what context are you talking about that stats can't back it up?

https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/2019/05/12/james-harden-continually-struggles-in-closeout-games-vs-warriors/

It's about his numbers in elimination games. It's quite simple in fact, in every game that James Harden has no pressure to win he can still perform at a high clip and be lethal, in nearly every game in his playoffs career that he faced elimination he had shortcomings.

When you call someone "the best offensive player ever" we do expect more. We have the right to expect more, to see not only a good Harden but a GREAT Harden.
And yes in a year with more scoring than ever, I expect him to perform on par to his RS form, because we use these numbers to conclude that he is the best offensive weapon ever, not 29/7/6.

Who says he's the best offensive player? He not better than Steph or pre-injury KD. You could make a case for him being behind Lebron too.

A high PPG count doesn't make you the best offensive player in the league.

And his playoff numbers this year are 31/8/6 on 63% TS (he's slightly more efficient than he was in the regular season). The only players with the potential for better production are the ones I mentioned above.

[evilpimp972]

His playoff numbers are virtually identical to his regular season numbers.

And what context are you talking about that stats can't back it up?

https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/2019/05/12/james-harden-continually-struggles-in-closeout-games-vs-warriors/

It's about his numbers in elimination games. It's quite simple in fact, in every game that James Harden has no pressure to win he can still perform at a high clip and be lethal, in nearly every game in his playoffs career that he faced elimination he had shortcomings.

When you call someone "the best offensive player ever" we do expect more. We have the right to expect more, to see not only a good Harden but a GREAT Harden.
And yes in a year with more scoring than ever, I expect him to perform on par to his RS form, because we use these numbers to conclude that he is the best offensive weapon ever, not 29/7/6.

Who says he's the best offensive player? He not better than Steph or pre-injury KD. You could make a case for him being behind Lebron too.

A high PPG count doesn't make you the best offensive player in the league.

And his playoff numbers this year are 31/8/6 on 63% TS (he's slightly more efficient than he was in the regular season). The only players with the potential for better production are the ones I mentioned above.

Then we agree lol
He's not better than Steph, KD etc
He could be if he posted a 35/7/7 playoffs run, but you know he won't. And yes this year he has been good (just like last year vs the Warriors when he had his best series ever). But there's more to it tho. His demons, I mean, the elimination games, might still be there. He had a putrid game 7...again.

Anyway there are stats to back up my claim :

Harden's efficiency as measured by an actually good measure of efficiency has dropped from 61.6 TS% over these last 3 seasons to 56.3 TS%. A drop of over 5 TS%. Over his career, he has dropped 3 TS%. For comparison, Lebron over his career drops from 58.6 TS% to 57.9 TS%. Once you adjust for free throws, you discover the massive drop in Harden's game that matches every single eye test. A fall of 5 TS% is actually one of the most massive decreases by a star player ever. Even Curry who is routinely bombarded by accusations of being a playoff choker only drops 1.4 TS% in his entire career (roughly half Harden's career decrease) and has a higher TS% in both RS and PS.

This is back by FTr changes. Free throws are well understood to be by far the most efficient shot. Even the least valuable free throw (a 2 point free throw) blows the value of any shot out of the water short of a dunk. His ability to draw fouls has sharply decreased in recent playoffs going from a mind boggling 0.504 FTr (last 3 season sample like above) to 0.399 - in short he is losing 20% of his free throw rate.

Star players hold volume numbers easily, the question is what they have to do to keep up their volume numbers. BPM which is a composite rate stat reflects this exact claim: Harden's all around value drops immensely come playoffs time. His BPM has fallen by ~3 points in this 3 year stretch, 0.7 points in his career. Meanwhile Lebron's BPM has increased by 2 points in the playoffs, Steph's has increased by 0.5, KD's has increased by 0.3. BPM is clearly capturing what a lot of people are observing. His inability to draw fouls and by extension, the overall drop in his effective performance is noticed both by fans and by statistics for the major argument against Harden.

[Gus McCrae]

Lakers in 6

[Galloisdaman]

James Harden is the best player in this series. He is the real king right now.

[Ben-N1ce]

Lakers aren't winning if the Rockets hit threes which they didn't even do great last night and got a million good looks. Lakers look bad in half court the whole bubble til they got the mighty Trailblazer's D . They need to come up with something and it's not as simple as AD in the post if the Rockets don't send him to the line a thousand times a game like Portland did.