Patrick Beverley lays out the biggest reason James Harden underperforms in the playoffs: “The team is using you for everything”

James Harden is one of the best regular-season players of all time. However, as great as Harden has always been the entire year, the one thing that critics always throw at him is that he always ruins a great campaign by disappearing when it matters most – in the playoffs.

Read more No. 10 Alabama scores on 9 straight drives to subdue Florida State

Now we’ve seen superstars struggle in the playoffs. But we’ve never seen one consistently have a hard time like Harden does, especially in Game 7s. Some even call him a choker.

However, the Beard’s former Houston Rockets teammate, Patrick Beverley, defended his poor postseason efforts, explaining that Harden runs out of steam in the postseason because he’s asked to do too much to get there.

“If you’re forced to be put in a position where the team is using you for everything, they’re using you for pick and roll, they’re using you for iso, they’re using you for playmaking abilities, whether that comes with passing the ball, this person scoring, you scoring. If he’s been used for all of this, all season long, you think when it comes to Game 6, Game 7, he’s going to be in what type of shape?”

Harden had a very hard usage rate in Houston

There’s no question that Harden does a lot for his team because, as he once claimed, he is the system, so everything flows around him. During his 9-year run in Houston, James had a usage rate of 33.3 percent, which is higher than Michael Jordan’s career usage rate of 33.26 percent. During the 2018-19 season, his usage rate of 40.5% was the second-highest in NBA history.

That season ended in a Game 6 loss to the Golden State Warriors in Round 2. One season earlier in 2017-18, when he won MVP honors, Harden also led the league in usage at 36.1. That was the year when the Rockets blew a 3-2 lead to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

“This is what the brand of basketball has put on him…And you wonder why, and then we say, ‘Oh no, he’s choking.’ You ask me to make every single play, for every single minute of every single game. I’m not hurt. I always play. This man has never missed the playoffs,” Beverley added.

Read more Indonesia’s rescue agency recovers more victims from capsized ship, authorities say

Related: Gilbert Arenas revealed the NBA teams’ cheerleader hiring strategy: “There was a point where none of those girls can dance”

He’s been in the playoffs every year

Harden has played 17 seasons in the NBA. He’s also been to the postseason every year of his career. James has also averaged a very high 34.8 minutes per game in his career, and that number shot up to 37.0 minutes per game during his Rockets tenure. In the postseason, his minutes are even higher at 36.3 per game in his career and 38.3 per game as a Rocket.

The high usage, number of playoff games played, and playing time per game have factored heavily into the Beard’s postseason meltdowns, if you ask Pat Bev. These are the main reasons he has a career Game 7 average of just 18.0 points per game on 34 percent field-goal shooting and 20.7 percent 3-point shooting. It’s also why Harden’s Game 6 shooting percentages of 41.1 percent from the floor and 34.9 percent from 3-point range fall short of his career averages.

Pat Bev makes a valid point there. However, Harden played two Game 7s with the Cavs in the 2026 playoffs and went 2-0. Harden didn’t have to do as much playing behind both Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley. Still, he shot 3-9 from the field against the Toronto Raptors in the first round and 2-10 against the Detroit Pistons in Round 2. Maybe James really just disappears in Game 7s for no reason.

Related: “He made NBA rewrite rules” – Patrick Beverley is proud of James Harden signing a new $97M contract extension despite the criticism

Read more MLB roundup: D-backs walk off Yankees on World Series anniversary night

Copyright 2026 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This story was originally published September 20, 2026 at 4:42 AM.