He was there in the first 34 games, keeping his team afloat while his fellow superstar recovered from lingering knee issues.
He was there in the final stretch of the season, leading the Clippers to an 18-3 record and the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference.
But when the Clippers needed him in Game 5 on Tuesday night, James Harden all but disappeared, leaving the Clippers one loss away from elimination after a 131-115 loss in Denver. The Clippers trail the Nuggets, 3-2, in the best-of-seven first-round playoff series, with Game 6 on Thursday night at the Intuit Dome.
Although the Clippers showed life at various points in Tuesday’s game, Harden failed to come through, showing a lack of energy against Denver’s defense. The 16-year veteran of 128 career playoff games finished with 11 points on 3-of-9 shooting, five assists and eight rebounds, the fifth time this series that his field-goal attempts have decreased every game.
In addition to a team-high four turnovers, Harden scored just two points in the fourth quarter as the Clippers made a push, cutting a 22-point deficit to single digits, which prompted loud negative chants about the 2018 MVP from the Ball Arena crowd, who sensed something was off with the 11-time All-Star.
The Clippers averaged just 0.72 points per play on the 35 plays Harden was involved in Tuesday, according to ESPN. Both are his lowest marks of the series.
Harden, a 36.3% career 3-point shooter, also missed both of his 3-point attempts in Game 5, the first time he failed to connect on a long-range shot since Feb. 4.
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue told reporters in Denver that the Nuggets blitzed Harden, who, at 35 years old, can still deliver a scoring punch in crunch time.
“I think Denver made up their mind up that they’re going to try to take him out of the series after the first two or three games,” Lue said. “They’re doing a good job, but I just have to do a better job of finding ways to get him open, to get him space. Probably more isos because they’re blitzing him so much to try to get him to his spots.”
Kawhi Leonard, who had 20 points, nine rebounds and 11 assists in Game 5, averted answering questions about Harden, suggesting that offense wasn’t the Clippers’ problem; it was their defense.
“We got to play the game. My teammates knocked down shots tonight, we just weren’t able to defend,” Leonard said. “You have to keep playing the same way. If we want to keep going, everyone has to contribute, which they are doing. Yeah, just keep playing the same game.”
Any explanation about his performance will have to wait. Harden not only disappeared on the court, but skipped out for a second straight time this postseason before anyone could ask him about his performance.
Harden isn’t the Clippers’ only concern heading into the elimination game. While the league’s third-rated defense stopped three-time league MVP Nikola Jokic from easily getting to the rim, the Clippers couldn’t stop Jamal Murray, who exploded for 43 points on 8-of-14 shooting from 3-point range, Aaron Gordon (23 points) or Russell Westbrook, who scored 21 points off the bench.
“He made a lot of tough shots, but he can do that. He made a lot of tough shots, we could have done a better job,” Clippers center Ivica Zubac said of Murray. “But at the end of the day it’s a make-or-miss league. He made a lot of shots. It’s hard to win against anyone when you have a player shooting like that.”
Lue said the Clippers need to make changes if they want to extend the series to a deciding seventh game but declined to give any hints.
“We gotta respond. We blew them out in Game 3. They came back and responded in Game 4. We gotta do the same thing,” Lue said. I don’t know what changes you could make. They made shots … coming back home, Intuit will be rocking. We’ll be fine.”
GAME 6: NUGGETS AT CLIPPERS
What: Western Conference, first-round series
When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
Where: Intuit Dome
TV/radio: FDSN SoCal, TNT, truTV, MAX/570 AM
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