Nets, lost again.
Away against the third-to-last Kings of the West, I thought there would be no suspense, the Nets did play 32-23 in the first quarter, until the end of the third quarter to lead 86-83, the result of the fourth quarter, the Nets in the single quarter by the Kings a wave of 29-15, helpless to swallow a defeat.
After losing this game, the Nets have suffered six straight losses, and currently have a record of 29 wins and 22 losses, only sixth in the East, and only 2.0 wins ahead of the Ninth Celtics in the East (28 wins and 25 losses) - it is hard to believe that the Nets, who were first in the East not long ago, may now fall out of the top eight.
Back in this game, although Irving and Harden both played, the performance of both of them is really difficult to say that they are outstanding:
Harden had 2-of-11 and 0-of-5 three-pointers, with 4 points, 7 rebounds, 12 assists and 6 turnovers
— Irving made 5 of 15, 2 of 5 three-pointers, and had 14 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 4 turnovers
The two men combined to shoot 19 of 26, scored just 18 points and made 10 turnovers — Kings Barnes, Mitchell and Hield all scored at least 18 points, and the team made 11 turnovers.
Among them, Harden's performance was particularly bad.
Harden lost all 3 shots in the first quarter, did not score a point, and only scored 2 points at halftime; I thought that Harden would find his form in the second half, but this slump continued, although the whole game sent 12 assists, but 4 points, 6 mistakes are obviously unexpected.
In addition, Harden played 37 minutes in this game, and his plus-minus was as low as -21, the lowest in the game, in other words, the Nets beat the Kings by 10 points in the 11 minutes that Harden was not on the floor.
Such a sluggish game can be ranked even in Harden's career:
— 4 points is Harden's lowest score of the season and the first single-digit score
4 points per game is the lowest score in a game with at least 30 minutes of Harden's career playing time
Throughout his career, in addition to the early withdrawal from the game due to injury, Harden scored no more than 4 points at a time or in the Thunder period, and in the 2010-11 season, the second-year Harden faced the Nuggets with 2 of 5 in a single game, scoring only 4 points
During his six-game losing streak, Harden missed two of them, and three of the other four were not particularly good:
— Against the Timberwolves, he scored 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting
Against the Suns, he scored 22 points on 6-of-19 shooting
Against the Kings, he scored 4 points on 2-of-11 shooting
Throughout the season, Harden has played in 44 games for the Nets, averaging 22.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game, and his assist statistics are still beautiful, currently ranking second in the league, but averaging 4.8 turnovers per game is also ranked first in the league.
In terms of scoring, Harden is really difficult to say excellent, currently only ranked 24th in the scoring list, and the efficiency is not high, his shooting rate is only 41.4%, three-point shooting rate is 33.2%, effective shooting rate is 48.6%, the above three figures, either a new career low, or a new low since the rookie season.
Of course, the average per game is "22+8+10", which is a huge star for any player, but we are talking about Harden now.
You know, Harden is a three-time NBA scoring champion and a former MVP who is at the peak, once in the Rockets period, Harden scored like chopping melons and chopping vegetables, leaving performances including 61 points per game (2 times), 30+ in 32 consecutive games, averaging 36.1 points per game, averaging 34.3 points per game, and averaging 54 points per week, but it was only a few years ago, but he could not even get a 40 points (the highest score of 39 points this season), which is definitely not the Harden in the fans' impression.
In terms of this game, even Kings coach Gentry was very surprised by Harden's performance: "I've never seen him play 37 minutes and then just get four points, I don't even know how to explain it, I really don't know, I just stick to the game plan on the defensive end, keep him out of the box as much as possible, and then limit his retreat for three points, we did a good job." ”
Talking about the Nets, Durant's missing 9 games, the Nets have a total of 2 wins and 7 losses, it is now six consecutive losses, and a few more losses or even fall into the ranks of play-offs, this team urgently needs MVP, scoring king mode Harden to stand up, and we believe in Harden's ability to adjust, so that a single 4-point game, really can not appear again.