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On Saturday evening, the Los Angeles Clippers' season came to an unceremonious end with a shellacking at the hands of the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 of their first round playoff series. James Harden didn't do much to quell his playoff demons in this one, recording just seven points in a 19-point loss that wasn't nearly as close as the final score suggested.
Harden has a reputation for coming up short in the playoffs throughout his future Hall of Fame run, and recently, NBA insider Josh Eberly took to X, formerly Twitter, with a thread highlighting some of the more unfortunate moments from Harden's postseason career.
Among them were his subpar shooting performance in the 2012 NBA Finals with the Oklahoma City Thunder, a puzzling ten-point performance in 2017 against the San Antonio Spurs, and back to back poor performances when the Philadelphia 76ers were up 3-2 against the Boston Celtics back in 2023.
These were just a few of the many examples that Eberly cited in the thread.
“At some point, a guy is who he is and the mental/physical load with all the pressure is just not something they are going to overcome,” Eberly concluded.
“This is detailed and devastating,” wrote one user in the comments.
Another tried to look at the bright side, pointing out that “he makes the playoffs every year. One of the highest floor players of all time who seemingly guarantees 50 wins.”
A tough day for James Harden
There's no denying the greatness of James Harden, who will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer one day and came closer than anyone to defeating the Kevin Durant-led Golden State Warriors (and maybe would have if Chris Paul didn't get hurt in 2018).
Still, there's also no denying Harden's tendency to come up short in the biggest moments throughout his career, which once again manifested in Saturday's loss in Denver.
Harden will be 36 years old by the time the 2025-26 season rolls around, and it's a shame that his Game 7 performance will likely overshadow what was one of his best seasons in recent memory this year.
