Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The playoffs are proving again that James Harden is not that guy

Hopefully, Patrick Beverley is watching the NBA playoffs. And the seat boils wherever Cleveland Cavaliers president Koby Altman is watching round two.  

They are down 2-0 to the macho Detroit Pistons, and this series can be submitted as exhibit 319 on why James Harden isn’t on Dwyane Wade’s level. Yes, yes, Harden once upon a time led a team to Game 7 in the Western Conference finals against the Kevin Durant-led Golden State Warriors, but he never mastered the greatest playoff stat of all: wins.

Wade was so great, in fact, that he was able to sacrifice ego and coexist with LeBron James, before his body broke down on him. Flash also came through in big games and retired thrice a champion.

Coach Kenny Atkinson should start looking into staggering Harden’s minutes, even at the expense of putting more playmaking responsibilities on Donovan Mitchell, and placing a brighter spotlight on Altman. He rolled the dice for the Beard, a bigger, stronger guard than Darius Garland (now a LA Clipper), but now Harden’s age is catching up to his disappearing act.

He’s had four of nine playoffs games with Cleveland, picking up more turnovers than field goals. Mitchell is better off passing to Dean Wade and Max Strus. On top of that, his 3-point percentage has dropped 11.3 points following his 26 regular-season games with the team, and he’s only taken 13 shots in the lane across two outings in Detroit. He’s having so much trouble getting loose that he couldn’t score on Cade Cunningham, Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland II, the three who logged the most minutes guarding him in Game 2.

Beverley and some misguided peeps have opined that Harden is superior to Wade, but in reality, he doesn’t even have Reggie Miller’s playoff résumé. Let’s see Harden, age 36, lead his squad to the Finals as Miller did at 34 as the Indiana Pacers’ leading scorer (24.0).

The Cavs haven’t lost at home yet in the playoffs, but this could be over in five. Harden has a player option for next year, which he would be wise to take up because no one is likely offering him that base for multiple years. Yet, he always splits town when things get hard, so who knows?

Garland wasn’t the answer for this build, but neither was Harden, and Altman plus anyone else who had a part in bringing him in should have known that his regular-season stats are like cubic zirconia masquerading as a diamond. Somehow, that series he lost to Portland mainly because they dropped the first two at home, or the one he lost to the Warriors minus Kevin Durant in Game 6, or he when he played scared versus the Boston Celtics in Game 7, or last year’s no-show in Game 7 against the Denver Nuggets, wasn’t enough to convince Cleveland’s decision makers that’s who he’s always been. 

Harden is not a big-time player when it matters. He once trash talked on-his-last-legs Ray Allen by telling him “This is my time.” Ray is still waiting for him to prove it.