CHOKE CITY: HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM

The Houston Rockets were in a great spot last night to extend their series to seven games. They were playing at home, had one of the top MVP candidates, and Kawhi Leonard would miss the game due to a sprained ankle. There's just no way the Spurs could go into the Toyota Center and end this series without a couple of their key players, right? WRONG! The Spurs absolutely put on a clinic and ran the Rockets out the gym. The final score was 114-75, a 39 point blow out led by LaMarcus Aldridge who had 34 points and 12 rebounds. Even with Aldridge playing a great game the main concern afterwards was the disappearing act performed by James Harden.

I'll be the first person to tell you that I had Harden in the superstar category coming into this season. I have now changed my stance on this after his pathetic display last night. It isn't Harden's first time having a disastrous game while facing elimination, but game 6 was on a different level. As far as I'm concerned Harden didn't even try. There was no reason why Harden should've only had two field goal attempts, five points, and five turnovers at halftime. His final stat line was 10 points on 2-11 shooting, 3 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 turnovers.

In the league today we have all star caliber players, star players, and superstar players (LeBron, Curry, Durant, Westbrook, Leonard). Harden is just a star player, nothing more nothing less. You cannot continue to have these tragic performances when your team needs you the most and be considered a superstar. I can go back to the 2012 NBA finals when Harden gave the Thunder absolutely nothing on the offensive end. Let's flashback to 2015 when Harden set a playoff record with 13 turnovers against Golden State in an elimination game. He was also 2-11 shooting as well. Some people say Westbrook shot the Thunder out of game 6 last round, but at least he went out shooting and putting up a fight! Harden finished with 11 shot attempts for the game when he should've had that amount of attempts in the first quarter.

Harden is starting to be remembered for more bad than good when it comes to the NBA playoffs. His performance last night was the icing on the cake. I thought I was watching Tony from the movie "Blue Chips." For those that don't understand the comparison I definitely recommend watching that film for yourself. It's going to be a long offseason for Harden and the Rockets after what was a successful regular season.

SPURS FALL IN GAME 1

Last night the Houston Rockets shot lights out and defeated the San Antonio Spurs 126-99 in game 1 of the western conference semi-finals. MVP candidate James Harden did a great job of getting others involved finishing the game with 14 assists to go along with 20 points. From top to bottom the Rockets looked a step quicker than the Spurs. We all know Popovich is going to make adjustments for game 2, but I believe the Rockets are just a bad matchup for the Spurs.

These aren't your typical Spurs from years ago, father time has caught up with a few of their core players. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili have not looked like themselves the entire season. Why should we expect them to turn back the hands of time now during the playoffs? If the Spurs are to have a chance at winning this series they are going to need more out of LaMarcus Aldridge.

Aldridge didn't play particularly well last series against the Grizzlies and his struggles continued last night. He was just 2-7 from the field finishing the game with 4 points. Houston did a great job of putting Aldridge in pick and rolls last night, but on the offensive end he has to make an impact on the block. Outside of Kawhi Leonard who's going to be that other consistent scorer? 

On the other hand the Rockets are a handful to contain on the offensive end. With Kawhi having to burden much of the offensive load I don't know if his defense will have the same impact. He can't guard everybody on the Rockets. Houston has multiple players that can handle the ball and create their own shots creating mismatches in their favor.

I don't expect the Rockets to shoot this well every game, but I don't feel they need to in order to beat the Spurs. Game 2 will be Wednesday night in San Antonio and I'm looking forward to the adjustments that both teams will make.