PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia 76ers star James Harden has been dealing with a great deal of criticism in recent days.
For good reason.
He shot a combined 5-for-28 in the previous two losses. That cannot happen. He is so important to this team. He is a future Hall of Famer. He had to remind people of who he is.
After a miserable couple of games, Harden returned to who he has shown he is his whole career.
The Beard went for 42 points on 16-for-23 shooting, 6-for-9 from deep, and he had nine assists and eight rebounds. He also drilled a go-ahead 3 with 19 seconds left to lift Philadelphia to a 116-115 overtime win and tie the series at 2.
How did Harden get back to who he is? Coach Doc Rivers sent him a gospel song before the win.
“For a day and a half, he had to get himself back,” said Rivers. “No one did that, but James. Film’s great and we talked and probably 15,000 other people probably talked to him, but James — I sent him a gospel song before the game and the title of it is ‘Do you know my name?’ and James Harden was James Harden tonight (Sunday).”
When asked about the song, Harden began laughing as he began rehashing what Rivers sent him.
“He sent me a song. … I’m on my way to the game and I get a text from Doc and I’m like ‘What is going on?’… It’s a gospel song,” Harden said smiling. “So I’m like ‘Alright, whatever’ so I just told my homies, ‘Let’s play the song!’ It’s a seven-minute song, but I let the whole song play. I’m like ‘Alright, there’s gotta be some good juju in this song or however he’s feeling, I wanna feel like that’ and I guess it worked.”
It was rather unusual for Harden to get a text like that from Rivers. The coach doesn’t usually send him a song to get him fired up and ready for a game.
“It’s the first time he’s ever text me a song,” Harden laughed. “I wanted to see how he’s feeling.”
Clearly, the song worked. The Beard had another phenomenal performance in this series, and the Sixers needed all of it.
Harden is capable of games such as this one. He saved Philadelphia on a day its 16-point second-half lead evaporated as Boston rallied to take a 105-100 lead with 2:26 left.
With Boston up 107-105 with 51.3 seconds left, Harden tied the game with 16.4 ticks left to lift Philadelphia to overtime and eventually, the win.
“To be up 15, cut the lead, they tie the game up, and they take the lead and we continue to fight and we don’t shut down, we continue to battle and make shots, that’s what playoff basketball is about,” Harden finished. “We did that. Of course, we’re not trying to give up a 15-point lead, but it happens. It’s a part of basketball. You see it a lot. It’s next play, control what you can control, and keep fighting until it’s 0:00 on the clock.”
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