James Harden’s 2024-25 season ended in disappointing fashion, as he no-showed in the Los Angeles Clippers‘ 120-101 loss in Game 7 to the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. It was another poor showing in a critical playoff game by Harden, and ESPN’s Marcus Spears used a hilarious analogy to rip him on First Take.
“James Harden is like the dude that got a girl, and he sets up nice scenes and he never proposes,” Spears said. “They never gonna get married. He’s gonna date you, y’all gonna stay together. People are gonna say y’all a great-looking couple, but he’s never gonna marry you. That’s what I compare these Game 7s to.
“The disappointing part about it is, you match up some of the performances that we’ve seen him have in his career, and they’re some of the best we’ve seen in NBA history,” Spears continued. “And you just want to see one of those in a closeout situation or when your team needs you to come through in a major way.”
Harden had just seven points (2-8 FG), five rebounds, 13 assists, two steals, and one block against the Nuggets in Game 7. The 11-time All-Star wasn’t the least bit aggressive, as those eight shots were the fewest he attempted in a game in the series.
This loss meant Harden had lost a Game 7 with four different teams, an NBA record. He got off to a good start in them, winning three of his first four, but has lost three in a row since to fall to 3-4.
Harden’s first defeat was in Game 7 of the 2018 Western Conference Finals with the Houston Rockets against the Golden State Warriors. Chris Paul had infamously gotten injured in Game 5, so he still got a bit of a pass for that loss.
Harden’s next Game 7 defeat would come in the 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals with the Brooklyn Nets against the Milwaukee Bucks. He was playing through a hamstring injury, though, so again, it was hard to be too critical there.
While there was an excuse for the first two, that wasn’t the case for the next one. Harden had just nine points (3-11 FG), six rebounds, seven assists, two steals, and one block for the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Boston Celtics.
Harden’s play in this loss to the Nuggets was somewhat similar to how he played against the Celtics, and that’s simply unacceptable for a player of his caliber. Sure, the 35-year-old isn’t at his absolute peak anymore, but you’d still expect more than this.
Harden now averages 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 7.9 assists, 2.6 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game in his career in Game 7s. He has been incredibly inefficient in them, too, shooting 35.5% from the field and 22.4% from beyond the arc.
This Game 7 against the Nuggets had given Harden another opportunity to rewrite the narrative about him, and he came up short again. The 11-time All-Star had enjoyed a renaissance in this 2024-25 season, averaging 22.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 8.7 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game. You wondered if maybe it was going to be a different story this time around, but that wasn’t the case.
