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Although James Harden led the Houston Rockets to a second-place finish in the Western Conference’s regular season despite Dwight Howard missing 41 games, the Golden State Warriors’ sharpshooter Stephen Curry received four times as many first-place votes as Harden for the MVP award. This wide disparity in the voting results was a bit shocking, considering how deserving both players were of this award. Putting the regular season aside for now, the NBA playoffs have revealed one certainty regarding these two stars: It is nearly impossible to separate the two, even as Curry-lovers and Harden-bashers attempted to do for much of the NBA playoffs.
Both players have been incredibly efficient shooting the ball during the postseason. In the playoffs, Curry has taken 11.1 three-pointers per game, while making 5.0 of those attempts for a mark of 44.9 percent from behind the arc. Still, Curry’s true shooting percentage of 62.4 percent is slightly behind Harden’s 63.0 true shooting percentage.
With regards to scoring, the two are pretty much even as well. Harden has averaged 27.2 points per 36 minutes. Curry, on the other hand, has tallied 28.0 points per 36 minutes. Curry’s slight edge in scoring can be attributed to the fact that he has attempted 2.9 more shots per 36 minutes.
Even with defenses keying in on them, both superstars have controlled their turnovers in the playoffs as well. During the postseason, the MVP has averaged 3.5 turnovers per 36 minutes, while the runner-up is at 3.9 turnovers per 36 minutes.
Neither star separates himself from the other when looking at passing or rebounding either. Harden has tallied 7.5 assists and 5.5 rebounds per 36 minutes, while Curry has produced 6.1 assists and 4.5 rebounds per 36 minutes.
Although these statistics leave much of this discussion up for debate, one subtle detail remains clear: Harden is playing in a less creative, sometimes seemingly juvenile offense with no other shot creators on the roster, while Curry has the ability to play off the ball in Steve Kerr‘s fluid offensive scheme. Whenever Harden is on the court, he is the focal point, a tiring task for someone who only missed one contest in the regular season (and averaged 36.8 minutes per game). This difference is highlighted when looking at how many of their respective field goals have come from teammates’ assists. During this postseason, Harden’s two-point field goals have been assisted on only 15.1 percent of the time, while his three-point field goals have been assisted on only 36.6 percent of the time. On the other hand, Curry’s respective percentages are 36.2 and 61.4 percent, numbers that do not even compare to Harden’s minuscule percentages.
Additionally, Harden has exceeded Curry in estimated wins added and offensive win shares, as he leads the postseason in both categories. Harden also joins the elite company of Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan and LeBron James as the only players in NBA history to average at least 25.0 points, 5.0 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game with a true shooting percentage of at least 60.0 percent in 10 playoffs games or more in one season.
Obviously, both MVP candidates have dominated throughout the playoffs and very little has separated their respective production. However, because Curry is beloved by the NBA fanbase while Harden is quite frequently shoved to the side, narratives will flood the conversation regarding this topic; but to put it simply, the numbers say it all.
Nicholas Sciria is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Nick_Sciria, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
