All-Star point guard James Harden didn’t address the media after the LA Clippers’ Game 7 loss to the Denver Nuggets.
That wasn’t a total surprise. The Clippers lost four times in this series, and the only time Harden spoke with the media after a loss was after Game 1, when he scored a game-high 32 points and dished a team-high 11 assists. He didn’t play well in the other three losses of the series, so we didn’t hear from him.
I’m not personally affronted by a player not fulfilling his media obligations. Perhaps Harden thought speaking to the “Starting 5” crew was all he needed to do. Maybe there will be Instagram stories where Harden will address some of his actual thoughts to his fans and fans of the team he plays for.
But once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. Leadership can’t just be about when everyone doubts you, or when things are going well, or when you are winning. When things aren’t going well, how do you lead? When you’ve lost, how do you address that?
Harden scored only 15 points in Game 4, a day that will be known forever for the Aaron Gordon buzzer-beating dunk during which Harden tried to jump with Gordon instead of box out. He didn’t speak after that game, nor did he after Game 5, when he finished with 11 points and his field goal attempts declined for the fourth straight game.
Of course, he spoke after Game 6 — his team won, and he scored 17 of his game-high 28 points in the second quarter. He played more than 46 minutes, so the chances of him duplicating that performance for Game 7 were remote. He was going to need to do other things to contribute to winning.
“It is what it is,” Harden said after Game 6 when asked if he had another 48 minutes in him. “It’s a part of it. So whatever the team needs — 47, 48, overtime, whatever — I’m willing to do it.”
Harden tried to do those things. He had six of his 13 assists in the first quarter, to go with three rebounds, two steals and a block. He got to the free-throw line for two shots. He only had one turnover. His team was up through one quarter. But ultimately, Harden was ineffective on both ends.
Simply put, we didn’t hear from Harden after the toughest spots of the Clippers’ season against the Nuggets. The team’s biggest stakeholders had to speak for him. And through their words, we heard an appreciation for what Harden helped the Clippers accomplish in the regular season but significantly less about him changing a playoff narrative where fading in the biggest moments is a recurring theme.
Shortly before Game 7 at Ball Arena, the floor section behind the baseline adjacent to the Nuggets bench filled with the supporters section from The Wall at Intuit Dome. It was Clippers chairman Steve Ballmer’s gesture to show appreciation to his fan base, as well as a vote of confidence in his team potentially winning its first playoff series in four years.
We all know how that ended. Ballmer had a front row seat to a 120-101 Denver victory that ended the season for the Clippers, but his actions spoke volumes.
This is a franchise still recovering from the decades of destruction from Donald Sterling, who was one of the cheapest owners in sports. Ballmer went and put Clippers fans in a position to see a potential triumph. Harden and company came up short in the biggest game of the season, and Harden couldn’t even address those fans afterward. It was the fourth different team in the last eight years with which Harden lost a Game 7.
Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern.
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue watched his team get eliminated on his birthday for the second year in a row, and Saturday was Lue’s first Game 7 loss. This series was the first time in Lue’s coaching career that he lost a series with a chance to clinch it. Lue praised Harden for “a great job leading this group … being able to hold this team together until we got Kawhi back.” But he expected Harden to still be leading that group this week.
“I haven’t thought about the offseason,” a dejected Lue said Saturday night. “To be honest, I thought about OKC. That’s what I was thinking. But it didn’t work out that way.”
That’s a brutal thing for Lue to admit, but he was accountable in describing how he felt after the game. Then there’s Leonard, who had to fight back from knee injury after knee injury just to play in his first elimination game in four years. The result of that effort was the Nuggets outscoring the Clippers by 33 points in Leonard’s Game 7 minutes. That was Leonard’s worst plus-minus in a playoff game ever.
“I think we could have given a better effort, for sure,” Leonard said. “I don’t think this team is 30 points better than us. I mean, you’ve seen it throughout the first six games of the series. But you’ve got to give them credit.”
Harden deserves some credit, too. He can get you to the playoffs. He’s shown that in each of his 16 NBA seasons. What the Clippers did this season with Harden leading a team with low expectations was impressive, something Leonard could acknowledge. But who knows when Leonard will be healthy again, and playing at this high a level, given what he has had to deal with physically.
“I don’t know — I mean, I guess we just did a good job during the season,” Leonard said. “I guess you gotta say a lot of people counted us out. We were able to get here. But it’s never the goal, just getting here.”
But after another disappointing ending, the question is, can Harden get you through the playoffs? He has shown that he likely can’t be relied on to lead that effort at a high enough level.
In September, before training camp, Harden scoffed at critics of his play style.
“There’s always going to be talk,” Harden said. “There was talk when I was in Houston, and I was doing what I was doing, ‘You can’t win like that.’ You just seen a guy last season who made it to the Finals playing the same exact way that I play.”
Harden’s team won more playoff games against a No. 4 seed than Luka Dončić’s team won against a No. 6 seed, and Harden didn’t even get traded like Dončić did. But you can be certain Harden was using Dončić as an example because he foresaw a deep playoff run with his team.
Like Ballmer, Lue and Leonard, Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank did not expect to meet with the media so soon, but he did this week.
“What happened in Game 7, that was extremely embarrassing,” Frank said. “And also uncharacteristic of the determination and resilience we demonstrated all year. … Ultimately, we’re judged by what we do in the postseason.”
Frank expressed gratitude to everyone he could at his end-of-season availability — not just players and coaches, but Ballmer, fans and even the media. Harden was a focus of Frank’s praise throughout.
“We really asked James to do a lot,” Frank said while vouching for Harden to be selected to an All-NBA team. “And at his age, to deliver what he did … 79 games. And he does that time and time and time again. We have a deep appreciation for that sort of availability and to be able to deliver and do what he did.”
Harden, who turns 36 in August, has a player option for next season. The expectation, as reported by The Athletic, is that he will be with the Clippers next season, one way or another. Frank said he has not given any thought to the possibility that Harden or Leonard would not be on the 2025-26 Clippers; Leonard is under contract for two more seasons.
“It would be irresponsible for me not to have contingency plans with it,” Frank said of Harden’s player option. “But I’m going in with the intent that if he doesn’t pick up his option, that we’re going to be able to reach an agreement that works well for James and works well with the Clippers.”
If Harden isn’t on the Clippers next season, then they are a worse team in the short term, and that endangers LA’s quest to be competitive in the West. A player like center Ivica Zubac would be adversely affected by the loss of Harden, who did raise the floor for the Clippers in a way many doubted he still could. But retaining Harden may have costs elsewhere.
One offseason focus is on who Harden’s backcourt mate will be. Kris Dunn helped Harden immensely as a co-starter this season, since Dunn was an expert point-of-attack defender who relieved Harden of ballhandling. In the playoffs, Dunn was canceled out in the same series that his predecessor Russell Westbrook thrived, ironically due to 3-point shooting. Ideally, Derrick Jones Jr. could start as a longer defender with Harden in the lineup, but Jones is a deficient ballhandler and passer.
Norman Powell had an All-Star-caliber campaign before injuries that zapped his effectiveness after the All-Star break. He is an efficient scorer and shooter, but his ballhandling and passing are subpar, and his next contract will be tricky given that he is a 6-foot-4 guard turning 32 years old who has missed at least 20 games in three of his four seasons with the Clippers.
Frank called Powell “the living example of addition by subtraction,” but if Paul George had only nine points on 11 shots in a Game 7 like Powell did, it would have gone over poorly. Denver starting shooting guard Christian Braun outscored the tandem of Powell and Harden by himself in Game 7, 21 to 16.
Can a starting backcourt of Harden and Powell, two guards over the age of 30 who are both defensive question marks, suffice for another season? Would the Clippers need to optimize that spot for what Frank considers his team’s biggest needs of frontcourt help and playmaking?
“There’s nothing better when you have guys who have been in the organization and that you can financially take care of; it’s a great feeling,” Frank said of Powell, who is entering the last year of his contract and can be extension-eligible this offseason. “And we also share big picture; this is how we plan on building the team and see if it’s a marriage that makes sense.”
So the Clippers push forward with their plan, with Harden in a prominent role. You can expect Harden to be a Clipper next season. You can expect him to run LA’s offense again. He’s been an All-Star, but it would be different to be an All-Star at Intuit Dome in 2026.
Harden will help the Clippers make a push for a playoff spot. The former scoring champ and MVP has done everything at this point in his career except win a championship.
Just don’t be certain that Harden will talk about it if things go awry. He left that responsibility in recent days to Lue, Leonard, Frank and the rest of his teammates. In doing so, Harden made it clear that what you see from him in the playoffs is what you get. That’s what the Clippers should expect going forward as long as he is with the team.
It is what it is.
(Top photo of James Harden: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
