In the 71-year history of the league, there have been many players who’ve choked when it mattered the most. However, we are sticking to the current crop of superstars and the most recent choke jobs that we have witnessed in the postseason.

That said, here are the top five stars who have recently choked in the Playoffs:

#5 LaMarcus Aldridge - San Antonio Spurs (2017)

Over the course of the 2016-17 regular season, the San Antonio Spurs had gotten the better of the star-studded Golden State Warriors, winning the season series 2-1. And in Game 1 of the Conference Finals, they were dominating once again through two-and-a-half quarters.

That’s when their MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard rolled his ankle on the Zaza Pachulia’s leg while landing after a jump shot.

Now, purely from a talent standpoint, San Antonio was short even with Leonard and his absence just created that much more of a talent deficit in comparison to the Warriors. So it was time for the next man to step up and lead the team.

The next man was LaMarcus Aldridge but he didn’t show up. Not just in the remainder of Game 1 but in any of the ensuing games, allowing the Warriors to sweep the series and advance to the Finals.

Aldridge, whose proven himself to be a potent offensive player time and time again, averaged just 11.3 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 38.4% in Games 2, 3 and 4. Not to mention how he failed to take over Game 1 once Leonard was out and not lead the team to a win despite having a 21-point lead.

#4 DeMar DeRozan - Toronto Raptors (2016, 2017)

DeMar DeRozan has made to the last four Playoffs but he was drafted only in 2009 so let’s be lenient and give him a pass for his first two postseason failures, where the Raptors bowed out in the first round. In the third year, Toronto reached their first ever Conference Finals series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

First of all, the Raptors should not have needed the full seven games to put away the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat in the earlier rounds, two teams they were far better than.

Out of the 20 games, the Raptors played that postseason, DeRozan scored 30 or more five teams. Each of the five times, the team recorded a win, which is a good indication of DeRozan’s impact and value. However, over the rest 15 games, he averaged 17.1 points and the team went 5-10 in those encounters.

For an All-Star caliber player, who is a pure scorer, those numbers are unacceptable. To make matters worse, his value decreases in the current NBA, because he lacks a three-point shot in his arsenal.

In the 2017 postseason, with Kyle Lowry out with injury, DeRozan’s true value was shown. The Raptors dispatched the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round but were swept by Cleveland in the next one. Against the Cavaliers, DeRozan only averaged 20.8 points per game but couldn’t lead the team to a single win.

#3 Kyle Lowry - Toronto Raptors (2016)

Kyle Lowry is a veteran, he has four more years of experience playing the league than DeRozan had but somehow both faltered when they needed to lead the team in the 2016 Playoffs. And Lowry was the biggest shock, with DeRozan’s one-off huge game helping the team reach the Conference Finals.

It wasn’t his first Playoffs, maybe Lowry could get a pass for the team’s debacles in 2014 and 2015 but what about 2016?

Toronto could have eased through the first two round against the Pacers and a short-handed Heat but Lowry’s struggles didn’t help. Give him credit though, he did come up big in the close-out game against Miami but given the disparity in talent between the two teams, it shouldn’t have taken a Game 7.

Lowry averaged 6.0 assists that postseason, which is around what he did for the regular season but his scoring and shooting were huge disappointments. Over the 82-game 2015-16 regular season, he averaged 21.2 points on 42.7% shooting. In the Playoffs, however, that year he averaged 19.1 on 39.7% shooting.

Numbers should be going up and not down when it comes to the postseason. Some of his games were horrific. He had multiple games where he either scored in single digits or shot less than 25% from the field.

#2 Blake Griffin - LA Clippers (2015)

The 2015 Los Angeles Clippers are one of 11 teams to give up a 3-1 lead in a Playoff series. They did so in their Conference Semifinals series against the Houston Rockets.

The addition of Chris Paul in the 2011 offseason made an immediate impact on the Clippers’ postseason hopes each year. They made it to every postseason since they traded for CP3 so 2015 was their fourth time around.

After defeating they heavily favored San Antonio Spurs in a seven-game series in the first round, the Clippers quickly pounced on the Rockets and took a 3-1 series lead. Griffin’s performance those Playoffs put him on par with the league’s best players but that’s when tragedy struck.

The Rockets won Game 5 then registered a huge upset in Game 6 on the road and then wrapped it up in Game 7 at home. Los Angeles had to just win one game but they couldn’t do it despite getting three cracks at it. Over those three games, Griffin averaged 28.3 points, 11.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists on 57.8% shooting. What more could he have done right?

The Clippers lost the last three games of that series by an average of 15.3 points and if Griffin was in such form, he must/ should have willed his team to a win especially when they only needed one. Numbers wise he’s proven himself but as the team’s superstar, the collapse is certainly on him.

#1 James Harden - Houston Rockets (2017)

In 2017, for the second time in three years, James Harden was an MVP candidate in the league. With averages of 29.1 points, 11.2 assists and 8.1 rebounds, he willed his team to 55 wins (+14 from the previous year). The franchise roared into the Playoffs as the third seed and took care of business against eventual league MVP Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games.

In the second round, they were up against the wily and veteran San Antonio Spurs. And things were looking good when they rolled over the Spurs in Game 1 with a 27-point win. San Antonio bounced back over the next two games and after four games, the series was tied two-games apiece.

Harden and the Rockets lost a heartbreaker in Game 5, losing a nail-biter in overtime. With their backs against the wall, Houston had to force had to win Game 6 to force a decider and it should have been easy as the Spurs were missing Leonard right?

Wrong.

Harden, the undebatable Rockets’ leader failed to show up and put up abysmal numbers after making an MVP case for himself all through the regular season and the 11 prior games of the Playoffs.

Here are his Game 6 numbers: 10 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, 18.2% shooting from the field, 22.9% shooting from beyond the arc and a -28 in the +/- category.

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