The recent playoff clash between the LA Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks saw the latter team secure a win with a score of 123-93. This 30-point loss is the biggest that the Clippers have ever recorded during a playoff game. A major reason for this was the abysmal performance of James Harden. Despite being the team’s third-highest leading scorer, he was only able to put up a score of 7 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists.

In the aftermath of the game, Harden found a voice of support in Clippers head coach Tyronn ‘Ty’ Lue. According to former ESPN contributor Farbod Esnaashari, the coach put out a statement claiming that the 34-year-old player is just another “human.” Therefore, he is allowed to have a bad game from time to time.

James Harden had entered the playoffs after securing an average of 33.9 points, 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists during the regular season. From Game 1 to Game 4 of the Playoffs, he scored 26 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists per game. All of those stats, however, took a back seat during his recent 33 minutes of playtime.

Along with his score, Harden’s shooting ability also saw a steep drop. He made 2-12 field goals and 1-7 three pointers. With this being his 11 playoff game shooting less than 20% FG, the Clippers star has now surpassed former Celtics player Bob Cousy (10 games) to reach the top rank on that list.

While Harden was having one of his worst nights, his rival team’s lead scorer Luka Doncic was having one of his best. Despite suffering from a knee injury and a reported flu congestion, the Mavericks star dropped 35 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists. Four other players followed Doncic’s lead and scored in the double digits. This helped to put up a score total that brought the Mavericks’ playoff series lead to 3-2.

Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley criticize James Harden’s performance

It was an overall bad night for the Clippers. While James Harden delivered one of his worst playoff performances, none of his teammates managed to score higher than 15 points. As always, after the conclusion of a game, the ‘NBA on TNT’ crew consisting of Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson Jr took it upon themselves to discuss what took place. With the stats right in front of their eyes, it didn’t take them to long to turn their attention on the 34-year-old shooting guard.

Kenny Smith proceeded to defend the Clippers by stating that something like this “happens in a seven-game series”. However, this defense was not something that the former 76ers legend was willing to accept.

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“Those two guys (James Harden and Paul George) were great in Game 4, they get the momentum back and come home and play that bad …. that game was over at halftime,” said Barkley. “Come on, that was ridiculous right there. Ain’t nothing anybody can say”.

Shaq highlighted his agreement with his co-host’s opinion by stating “They had no fight, they had no enthusiasm, then they tried to play hero ball at the end by shooting those 3s”. Furthermore, the 7 foot 1 legend claimed that the continuing inconsistency in Harden and George’s scoring is the reason why he never got on the Clippers’ “bandwagon”.

James Harden still has a chance to improve his standing and avoid his team from getting eliminated. Whether the same happens will be answered during Game 6, which will take place two days from now.