This is so ridiculous I can't believe you think this. I watched that series as closely as anyone else and it's simply not true. He scored whether Leonard was on the floor or not, scored in all quarters, but his team was blown out of the water by a far superior team.
You literally cannot suck while shooting 57%, 52% from 3 and putting up a line of 28.2ppg-7.8rbg-4apg-2bpg. This is basketball, it's not some esoteric sport where there are bizarre intangibles that can completely negate those stats.
You could have made a reasonable statement and said he could have performed better, a couple more ppg, a little more aggression, but to say he "sucked" or choked is the definition of being an irrational hater à la Skip Bayless and blindly ignoring all evidence to the contrary.
And yes, I think he could have done even better than he did, but he played damn well and his team got destroyed anyways. That series was always a loss with the way his teammates failed to show up.
You literally cannot suck while shooting 57%, 52% from 3 and putting up a line of 28.2ppg-7.8rbg-4apg-2bpg. This is basketball, it's not some esoteric sport where there are bizarre intangibles that can completely negate those stats.
You could have made a reasonable statement and said he could have performed better, a couple more ppg, a little more aggression, but to say he "sucked" or choked is the definition of being an irrational hater à la Skip Bayless and blindly ignoring all evidence to the contrary.
And yes, I think he could have done even better than he did, but he played damn well and his team got destroyed anyways. That series was always a loss with the way his teammates failed to show up.
