James Harden once again did not play his best basketball in an elimination game, and he compounded things with an inexcusable turnover in crunch time.
Harden’s Houston Rockets were down 107-102 after a Steph Curry 3-pointer with 1:28 remaining in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals on Friday night. Harden went to take the ball out under his basket and tossed in a lazy pass towards Chris Paul that was stolen by Klay Thompson.
Steph Curry hits 3 and the Rockets just throw the ball away LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL pic.twitter.com/Jmi6yfnze3
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) May 11, 2019
Even though the Warriors didn’t get any points off the steal, the turnover still cost Houston a possession and time on the clock when they could least afford to lose either one.
Harden still made two shots after that turnover and finished with 35 points, so this wasn’t nearly as bad as 2017. But that’s the exact type of mistake people can point to as the undoing of the Rockets. You can’t commit six turnovers the way Harden did. He just needed to be better and wasn’t.
Houston stalled at 97 points for about four minutes of game time during the fourth quarter. Down the stretch, the Warriors made more shots and plays than the Rockets did. It’s that simple.
