Earlier this week the Harden-in-the-playoffs discourse was right back where it always lives. The PMT guys floated the theory that maybe Harden just doesn't care that much anymore, pay cut and all, which is the kind of take that lives or dies on the next 48 hours of basketball.
The PMT theory of the week: maybe Harden's checked-out because of the money.
Then the actual game happened and the narrative did a full U-turn. Cleveland needed a closer, the offense was sputtering, and Harden went and put on a vintage Playoff Harden cape down the stretch. Frustrating game, fun ending — that's basically how every Cavs win is going to feel in this series, and Jeff D. Lowe summed it up cleanly afterward: a win is a win, and Harden made up for Game 2 in the moments that actually mattered.
Jeff D. Lowe's instant reaction: ugly game, big-time Harden close, Game 2 redemption.
The clip that had everyone screaming "the Cavs need a closer and here comes Harden."
The best part came after the buzzer. Asked about the chatter around his playoff resume — the same chatter that's been a permanent fixture of his career — Harden gave the perfect non-answer: "What chatter?" That is exactly the energy you want from the guy who just bailed out your team. If you spend a decade getting roasted every spring, you earn the right to play dumb when the shots actually fall.
Harden post-game, deadpan: "What chatter?"
It's one game. The discourse will be right back on him the second he goes 4-for-15 in a Game 4. But for one night in Cleveland, Harden flipped the whole conversation by doing the thing nobody on the podcast circuit thought he still had in him — closing. And honestly, the smug "What chatter?" might be the most fun he's looked in May in years.