James Harden had perhaps the worst game he has ever played in a Rockets uniform during Game 6 on Thursday.
西部半决赛第六场，对詹姆斯·哈登来说，可能是他加入火箭之后最糟糕的一战。
The Houston Rockets crashed rockily into their offseason in a brutal 114-75 defeat, and their do-everything superstar managed to do little to stop their collapse.
休斯顿火箭经历了一场惨败，他们以75-114输给了圣安东尼奥马刺队，毫无反抗地结束了他们的季后赛之旅。而他们无所不能的全明星领袖面对溃败却几乎什么都没有做。
Harden finished the game with 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting, managing only seven assists to six turnovers. He didn't attempt a field goal until halfway through the second quarter. He only had two shot attempts at halftime, and his passiveness stood out strangely in a crucial game.
哈登在本场比赛中仅11投2中，得到10分。他仅有7次助攻，却刷了6个失误。甚至，到比赛的第二节中段，他都没有尝试出手。他仅仅在中场时试着投了两次篮，在如此重要的一场比赛里，他的激情莫名其妙地消失了。
Yet it doesn't invalidate his season, and it certainly doesn't weaken his MVP case.
尽管如此，我们仍不能因为这一场比赛否定他整个赛季的出色发挥。同时，这一场比赛也不能减少他获得MVP的可能性。
Harden will be accused of that constantly in the aftermath of Game 6, a game where he was objectively terrible.
这场比赛之后，哈登可能会一直遭受指责，客观来说，他确实表现太差了。
It doesn't help that he cost the Rockets Game 5, wearing down in the overtime period and failing to score a point without Kawhi Leonard even in the game.
再加上，第五场比赛的时候，他葬送了火箭的大好局势，加时赛期间表现疲软，在卡哇伊-莱昂纳德不在场的情况下一分未得。
The past 53 minutes that Harden has played have been horrid, and recency bias is strong. But what about the other 3,264?
过去的53分钟，哈登的打得很糟糕，现在，近期效应很严重，人们过度的被他这53分钟的表现所影响，而忽略了之前的3264分钟。
In a move from shooting to point guard, Harden lit up opponents with sparkling efficiency and led the league in assists in a turbocharged Mike D'Antoni offense.
从得分后卫转为组织后卫后，在麦克-德安东尼的跑轰进攻体系下，哈登的高效“亮瞎”了黑子们。
Second in the league in scoring, Harden averaged fewer than 19 field goal attempts, scoring more than 1.5 points per shot.
他的场均助攻联盟居首。他在得分榜上排名第二，而他的场均出手还不到19次，平均每次出手可以得到超过1.5分。
His turnovers broke a league record, and that's obviously not ideal, but it came within a system created to allow just that.
他的失误很多，打破了联盟记录，虽然这很不理想，但这在他们的进攻体系内是可以被允许的。
His constant pushing and risk taking allowed for errors, with the belief being that it would benefit Houston more times than not. (It did.)
他的这种冒险的打法是有考虑到犯错的可能性的，而他们坚持这种打法是因为坚信这种打法在多数时候是对火箭更有利的（事实证明确实如此）。
It's a laugh to say that any guard could have done this with D'Antoni at the reigns.
可笑的是有人说在德安东尼的执教体系下任何后卫都能打出哈登的表现。
Any guard could have been a facsimile, sure, but hardly anyone could have reached these magnitudes.
没错，任何一个后卫可能都会去做同样的事情，但是不是每个后卫都能做得这么出色。
Harden didn't throw passes that seemingly broke physics, but he routinely threw ones that broke conventionality.
哈登虽然没有传出那种看起来打破人类所能的球，但是他会把一个普通的传球演绎的很不寻常。
A pass to a corner shooter is so ordinary, and yet his still caught defenses by surprise.
传个球到底角的射手是个很平常的事儿，但是他依然能让防守者吃惊。
He threatened teams around the rim and used that to find open shooters, and his ability to create shots — even from 26 feet out — routinely bailed the Rockets out of bad spots.
他通过突破威胁对方的篮筐，然后寻找外线的射手。他制造投篮的能力也让对手忌惮，他经常依靠个人投篮挽救火箭于危急时刻。即使在26英尺外他也仍然具有威胁。
All of that is hard to remember with the repellant Game 6 version of Harden so fresh on our minds, but it's true.
所有这些我们都很难记起来，因为现在第六场里那个糟糕的哈登在我们的脑子里那么清晰，但是，哈登那些优秀的表现都是真的。
Amusingly, Harden's struggles in his nightmare game seemingly came from him trying to hard to do the right thing.
有趣的是，哈登在第六场梦魇般的比赛里，之所以那么挣扎似乎是因为他在试图做正确的事情。
San Antonio smartly decided that they weren't going to guard Clint Capela, leaving him open constantly from five feet and betting their defenders could psych him out enough to render those possessions ineffective for Houston.
圣安东尼奥马刺做了个很机智的决定，他们没有去防守克林特-卡佩拉，放他差不多五英尺的距离，他们赌这种方式可以使卡佩拉丧失信心，致使传到他那里的球都不会转化成得分。
Capela shot 3-of-11 for 15 points, many of his points coming off Harden passes.
卡佩拉那场比赛11投3中，得了15分，他大部分的得分都是来自于哈登的传球。
At other times, Harden saw the gaps closing on him and flung the ball out to the perimeter instead, passes that often got tipped or in a couple cases picked off.
在其他时间，哈登受到包夹后，就会把球传到外线，这些传球经常被防守队员碰到，有些时候会被直接抢断。
The Spurs baited him with an open player around the rim, and he couldn't help himself.
马刺会通过故意漏掉一个外线球员来引诱哈登传球，而哈登总是忍不住把球传过去。

It wasn't working, and those aren't excuses. Instead, Harden needed to be taking those drives directly to the rim and powering into defenders, drawing fouls or finishing despite contact.
这种打法没有用，那些说法也都不是借口。哈登应该直接杀向篮筐，和防守者对抗，制造犯规或者进球。
Houston couldn't score, and instead of trying a last ditch takeover and attempting to overwhelm San Antonio's tactically sound defense with his sheer talent, he deferred.
火箭不能得分时，他没有试图接管比赛并用他的天赋来打破马刺的防守策略，他站出来的太晚了。
It's a flaw he has,where he can't help himself from making the smart play even if it isn't the right one, even if it's a noble one.
这算是他的一个缺点，他忍不住想要打得聪明，即使那不是正确的，即使那是毫无作用的。
We're still riding high off the Kobe era of superstars, and Harden is the one who passes too much. Who's to say one is worse than the other?
我们现在仍然对非科比时代的明星们多加溢美之词，而哈登就是那种会常常传球的球员。我们怎么能说哪种更好呢？
Still, it's not like Harden was some train wreck once the regular season calendar was torn off the wall and a playoff one replaced it.
哈登不是那种季后赛会比常规赛表现差的球员。
In 10 postseason games, before this total dud, Harden had a point more than the regular season, shot 1.5 percent less, assisted about three times fewer but also decreased his turnovers.
除了这场彻底哑火，在他之前的10场比赛里，他的得分比常规赛还多，命中率降了1.5，助攻差不多少了三次，但是失误也减少了。
The Rockets were fine, and so was Harden,He had a couple 40-point games.
火箭表现很不错，哈登也是。他有两场比赛拿了40+。
Houston's two postseason opponents geared up around him to reduce his impact, and he still had about the same one we saw during his 81 regular season games played.
火箭的对手们围绕他做了很多准备来减少他的影响，但是他仍然打出了和81场常规赛一样的表现。
If you had Harden as your MVP, or as your MVP runner up, neither of those things should change. Why would they?
如果你原本认为哈登应该是MVP，或者是MVP的第二名，那么你的选择现在也不应该改变，为什么？
Harden had his worst game of the season in the postseason, losing in six games to a team with a better record and coach in the Western Conference semifinals.
哈登在季后赛里打了他整个赛季最差的一场比赛，在西部半决赛里，经历了六场比赛之后，输给了比火箭战绩更好并且教练也更出色的球队。
It's a regular season award, and a game doesn't make a season. You all know this, and using it just to support a certain counter MVP narrative is so reactionary.
MVP是一项常规赛的奖项，并且一场比赛也不代表整个赛季的表现。这个道理大家都懂，因为这场比赛就去支持那些反对哈登MVP的言论是不对的。
(This feels like a timely moment to remind everyone that Russell Westbrook, another perfectly acceptable and brilliant MVP candidate, lost to Harden's Rockets in five games.)
（这似乎是个合适的时机去提醒大家一下，另外一个被热议的、表现亮眼的MVP候选人拉塞尔-威斯布鲁克，在第一轮中以1:4被哈登淘汰。）
We should flip this narrative in the opposite way, too: Game 6 doesn't go away because Harden was really, exceptionally good during the regular season.
我们应该将这件事用一个相反的方式表述：人们对于哈登第六场比赛的表现耿耿于怀，是因为他在常规赛表现的太过出色。
It can't happen again. Harden shouldn't go into the summer with no cares because he did a good job leading Houston to the league's third-best record.
这种事情不会再次发生。哈登不应该丝毫不被关注地结束这个赛季，因为他做得足够好，他带领火箭获得了联盟第三的成绩。
This embarrassment ought to motivate him. Certainly, he still has improvement left to be done, like his struggles when games get tight late.
这场比赛尴尬的表现应该成为他前进的动力。当然，他仍然有需要改进的地方，比如他在比赛的关键时刻会表现的很挣扎。
All those things are perfectly valid things for Harden himself to worry about. But Game 6 isn't a referendum on him, or the Rockets, or, c'mon damnit, their modern style.
对于哈登来说，那些关于投票、人们的评议之类的事情都不是他需要去担心的。他需要思考的是，第六场比赛的结果可不是人们对他、对火箭以及对他们的打法投票的结果。
It's a bad game at a worse time that unfortunately mars the end of one of the most unstoppable seasons we've ever seen. That's all. You can leave it at that.
这是场糟糕的比赛，发生在了糟糕的时间，使这个伟大的赛季收尾的不够完美。仅此而已。何必在乎它呢？

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