For years, James Harden has been tabbed as a playoff choker and whatnot. He has a long history of well-documented shortcomings in the postseason, but perhaps that narrative is a bit overblown. It just caught some legs, and people ran with it.
Actually, as pointed out by First Take on X, Harden currently has the most playoff wins without a championship among active players (90). That's more than Russell Westbrook, Jimmy Butler, or Paul George, most of whom have also drawn criticism for falling short in the playoffs.
Nevertheless, this is a team sport first and foremost, and it takes a lot to win 90 postseason games. Harden may have been either the leading or one of the leading scorers in at least two-thirds of those games, and that's also a testament to his greatness.
James Harden's postseason struggles are overblown
In his career, Harden has averaged 22.5 points, 6.5 assists, and 5.5 rebounds in 173 playoff games. He's shot 42 percent from the floor, 34 percent from beyond the arc, and nearly 87 percent from the free-throw line for a true shooting percentage of 58.6 percent, per StatMuse.
Notably, that's not that much different from his career averages of 24.0 points, 7.3 assists, and 5.6 rebounds per game on 43.9 percent from the floor, 36.4 percent from three-point range, 86 percent from the charity stripe, and a true shooting percentage of 60.8 percent.
Granted, great players usually rise to the occasion, and Harden's efficiency has taken a bit of a hit after the regular-season, but that's not entirely on him. Referees allow more contact in the playoffs; defenses get away with stuff they usually wouldn't, and while Harden doesn't rely soely on a friendly whistle to hurt opposing defenses, a more physical style can disrupt his rhythm.
Moreover, it's also worth noting that he's not the only one to blame for his team's struggles. He was a young player just making a name for himself in the NBA Finals vs. the Miami Heat, and he had to go against the biggest juggernaut in the league during his prime years when he squared off vs. the Golden State Warriors. He was on the verge of taking them down, and it's not entirely on him that his Houston Rockets missed 27 straight threes to blow a 15-point lead in Game 7.
Harden was limping and could barely play in his lone postseason series in Brooklyn, and he was just another victim of Doc Rivers and Joel Embiid once he moved to Philadelphia. Last but not least, he was asked to do most of the heavy lifting in his first playoff run with the Los Angeles Clippers, as Kawhi Leonard was out with an injury, as he usually is.
That's not to make excuses for Harden, but he's been on the wrong end of some terrible breaks. Fortune is also part of this, and while it's easy to understand how disappointing it is that he hasn't returned to the NBA Finals, he's fared better than most.
Harden has averages of 22.1 points, 6.5 assists and 5.4 rebounds in 26 games in elimination games in his career, once again, almost identical to his career averages. He deserves some of the fair criticism, but the numbers show that the 'playoff choker' narrative has been way too overblown.
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