To be fair to James Harden, he wasn’t the only one who was unable to find the bucket on Thursday night in his team’s playoff run-ending game against the Spurs. According to Elias Sports (via ESPN Stats & Info), his entire team had a historically bad shooting night:
Of course this doesn’t excuse Harden, who was the second-leading scorer in the league this season with an average of 29.1 of his team’s 115.3 points per game during the regular season. But in addition to his 2-for-11 shooting in the loss, Eric Gordon went 2-for-9 including hitting only 2 of the 7 3-pointers he put up. Ryan Anderson went a whopping 0-for-6 in his 25 minutes off the bench. And Clint Capela, normally a 64 percent shooter, went 3-for-11 from the floor (though he did get nine points on free throws).
Harden’s explanation (via USA TODAY Sports’ Sam Amick)?[1]
“I mean, I really just didn’t have a rhythm at the beginning of the game,” Harden, who had 10 points on 2-for-11 shooting, with seven assists, three rebounds, six turnovers and a minus-28 rating, told reporters afterward. “I was making some passes, and we just didn’t knock down shots – or whatever the case might be. But as a team, as a unit, we really didn’t have a rhythm, and they capitalized on that.
References
- ^ (via USA TODAY Sports’ Sam Amick)? (rssfeeds.usatoday.com)
