I really do find it peculiar how much talent analysis is driven by narrative. Harden is a much better playoff performer than Damian Lillard, yet Harden is the one who doesn't show up in big games, and Lillard is the one who is clutch in spite of his teammates.
Harden just had his best playoff run ever. 30/8/6 with elite efficiency (56% EFG and 64% TS%), less than 4 TOs per game, good defence (a DBPM of 1.9!) and was playing winning basketball. It was Westbrook, unsurprisingly, who tanked them.
We'd all be drooling if we had anyone capable of playing basketball that well