James Harden once again staged a magical disappearance technique in G7, causing the Clippers to be eliminated

This article is compiled from CBS Sports, by Brad Botkin

In Saturday's series G7 game, the Los Angeles Clippers lost to the Denver Nuggets, losing 101-120, and the game's disparity is far more than what the score difference shows. With less than nine minutes left in the game, the Clippers were 35 points behind.

In this game filled with poor Clippers' data, Kawhi Leonard created the worst plus-negative value of his career (-33); and James Harden's performance of only 7 points on 8 shots was particularly shabby, even if it was expected.

After all, "stand by and watch" in a single game of elimination nature is Harden's old tradition. He fooled us with 28 points on Thursday’s G6, but given his past performance, he couldn’t have played that way again in Game 7. The data is there, and it doesn't make sense to count on him.

Think about it, Harden has shot just 39% from the field in his last 13 elimination games, and his team has a 2-11 record. Even in the G6 knockout match that performed well just now, in his last five knockout matches, he averaged only 14.2 points per game and shot a 38% shooting percentage; if the G6, which had a huge data, was excluded, the table below would be unbearable to look at.

Before Thursday's G6 game, you'll have to go back to the 2020 closed park in Orlando to find out when Harden won the knockout match last time when the Rockets narrowly beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 104-102 in Game 7—even in that game, Harden made just 4 of 15 shots and only hit one of his nine 3-pointers.

Harden fans will point out his 13 assists in today's G7, 10 of which were in the first half, trying to tell you that although he scored only 7 points, he actually performed well. Don't pay attention to them. They are simply deceiving themselves.

This is not even a problem with 7 points, but a problem with 8 shots. I promise you that if the Rockets beat the Warriors to a loss in Game 7 Sunday, Stephen Curry will go out of the three-point line desperately to try to get his team back into the game. He will never give in when the bullets are exhausted.

But what about Harden? When the spotlight lights up, he is always happy to turn off his switch. I don't know if he wanted to protect his decent scores with few remaining scoring numbers or really lost confidence when the shots weren't going well in the knockout game, but anyway, it's a shameful trait for someone who is destined to be one of the most efficient scorers in NBA history.

Speaking of Curry: How many times have he scored under 20 points in his 14 career knockout games? once. Kevin Durant scored under 20 points only once in his 16 career knockout matches. LeBron James never scored below 20 points in his 29 career knockout matches.

Meanwhile, in 12 of Harden’s 26 knockout matches in his career, he scored less than 20 points, including seven of his last 13 games. He was particularly bad in the seventh decisive game.

Harden has a place on many impressive historical lists. But it's certainly not one of them.

Look at the bottom note above: The seventh game in the two consecutive games scored less than 10 points. Please, man. James Worthy averaged more than 27 points in Game 7 of his four-game career, scoring 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists in a game seven of a Finals victory. Such a performance is enough to be called "Big Scene James".

Harden took a different approach. On X, a fan with @SheaSerrano's account joked that Harden's nickname should be "Small Scene James".

What makes these poor performances of early playoffs even more unacceptable is that Harden tends to perform well in the early stages of the series. The player, who scored just 7 points on Saturday, scored 32 points in the first game of the series.

Last season, the situation was exactly the same. Harden averaged 26 points per game in the first four games of the Clippers' first round against Dallas; however, he scored only 7 points in the fifth game, and all six three-point shots in the sixth game were out of the way, and the Clippers also moved from a 2-2 draw to being eliminated.

Two years ago in Philadelphia, Harden scored 45 and 42 points in two of the first four games of the Sixers' second-round series against Boston. The Sixers led 3-2 in the series, but in Games 6 and 7, Harden scored only 13 points and 9 points, shooting just 25% from the field and hit only 11 3-pointers.

Although you can praise Harden for his 13 assists today, the more he goes on, the less likely he will be to perform these magician-like performances in this series. Let's take a look at his past three rounds of playoffs.

The Clippers are the most likely team in the West to beat the Thunder when they enter the playoffs this season. Kawhi Leonard is healthy and performs well. The defense is top-notch. Harden's All-Star performance is their third leg.

The Clippers lost that leg and they were destined to be out. Harden performed quite well in the first two games of this series. But in the most critical scene, his stealth scene - unfortunately - is still the same as before, and it is too easy to guess.