TORONTO–The Philadelphia 76ers will go as far as their star duo of Joel Embiid and James Harden will take them in this postseason run. With Embiid dealing with a torn ligament in his right thumb, there is more pressure placed on Harden to lead the way.
After two really rough games, Harden set the tone early in a Game 6 win over the Toronto Raptors. He scored 10 quick points in the opening quarter to guide Philadelphia and he finished with 22 points, 15 assists, and six rebounds. He shot 7-for-12 from the floor and he made all six of his free throws.
Harden is still working on getting comfortable with his new team. He only had 21 games in the regular season with them under his belt and the two days leading up to Game 6 were an important one for them.
“It was great,” said Harden. “All of this is new. We’re trying to figure it out on the fly. Things aren’t gonna be great all the time, but we’re communicating and I think all of us are on the same page and want the same thing and that’s to win to be the last team standing. We listen with open ears and we just go out there and try to play our butts off.”
With the quick start, Harden could have continued looking for his own offense. He could have easily tapped into his Houston days and focused on his points, but he instead decided to get his teammates involved and the Sixers benefitted from that.
“These last two days, we really got him in the right spots,” said coach Doc Rivers. “We wanted to keep freeing his mind up, just keep attacking, and what I loved about James was, I think he scored 10 points quickly and instead of looking for more points, he started becoming a point guard, and then he went back to scoring. I jokingly call him a scoring Magic Johnson. I thought that’s what he did tonight. He assisted and scored on a lot of buckets for us.”
Harden was also able to ensure that Philadelphia got into a big run in the third quarter. The Raptors kept things close in the first half before the Sixers took off and that is when Harden was able to lead the offense in a big way with his scoring and distributing.
Story continues
“I think it was a balance of both,” Harden added. “I think the entire game, we knew what we were trying to accomplish offensively and just continued to stick with it. The result of that is we got great shots. I think every possession and if you can get a good shot every possession, obviously, it helps your offense, but then defensively, it helps that as well. I think that’s what we did especially in that second half.”
Game 6 can be a moment for Harden and the Sixers for the future. As they head into Round 2, games like this are more important than ever.
“My confidence continues to grow as I learn my teammates and learn what they like to do,” The Beard finished. “Moments like this, you can really learn, and tonight was a great win for us.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
