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Warning: This is a knee-jerk article. James Harden played one of the worst games of his career last night, while John Wall just washed all of that bad Wale-taste out of DC's mouth.
James Harden scored 10 points on 11 shots, while shooting 18% and committing six turnovers. In an elimination game. At home. Oh, and Kawhi Leonard didn't even play.
After the skeleton of Manu Ginobili blocked James Harden's game 5 potential game-winner, I made the bold prediction to a friend that Harden would " drop 40 next game". Once I heard Kawhi wasn't playing, I bumped the prediction to 50. So you can imagine my shock when Harden only shot the ball twice the entire first half. "He's a top-5 player in the league, he's going to go off in the second half." Wrong, again. Harden looked just as disinterested in the second half as he did the first. In Harden's defense, his entire team was off. Scratch that. James Harden has no defense(double entendre). Superstars are supposed to carry their teams in big games. The term superstar is more than a label you give to a player just because he dropped 40 a couple times. It's a term that's earned by the biggest stars in the biggest moments. In the case of James Harden, it seems like he was just gifted the label out of expectations he's yet to live up to.
John Wall on the other hand.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
John Wall has been carrying the weight of Washington on his shoulders all season. Based on Wall's 3 point 1-9 shooting first half, it looked like that weight was finally too much to handle. Then the second half happened. Wall came out of halftime with his speed sliders on 100, and made Boston look like a team full of Omer Asiks. Wall finished the half with 23 points, and provided the exclamation point of the playoffs with his go-ahead 3-pointer. As if the game wasn't enough, John Wall made his legend grow even more with his postgame emotion." This is my city!" "I ain't going home." "I'm willing to go 0-30." The last one is a shot at Adidas golden-boy James Harden. Probably not, but hey NBA drama isn't going to create itself.
John Wall showed passion. James Harden showed indifference. John Wall stepped up to the plate. James Harden tried to use a designated hitter. James Harden is a great player, but he's no John Wall. He's no superstar.