PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers had their chance. They had a chance to eliminate the Boston Celtics in Game 6 at home, but they were unable to in a 95-86 loss. They outscored the Celtics, 30-21, in the third quarter to give themselves a chance, but they scored 13 in the fourth.
The Sixers shot 36.1% on the night. They had 18 assists, and they shot 8-for-34 from deep.
James Harden, who has had some really huge games and some really bad games in this series, had 13 points on 4-for-16 shooting, including 0-for-6 from deep. He had nine assists and seven rebounds, but Philadelphia needed more.
Harden was also 5-for-5 at the free-throw line. He appeared to take a lot of hits, but he didn’t get the calls he has gotten throughout his career.
“Tonight was just frustrating because I’m number one as far as fouls that don’t get called. It’s a fact,” said Harden after the loss. “So it’s frustrating as a player. So when officiating tells you at halftime ‘We missed a couple of fouls’. That right there. There was some missed shots and fouls which would give me a rhythm to transition points for them.”
On top of the shooting struggles, Harden committed five turnovers despite having nine assists. He would have had more assists, but the Sixers had trouble knocking down open looks.
“I’m not gonna look at my shooting percentage,” Harden continued. “I did a lot of really good things offensively. Defensively, they did a really good job of like their game plan was to pack the paint. They started two bigs, and they packed the paint. They started two bigs and they packed the paint. So they forced us to make shots.”
At this stage of his career, obviously, Harden is more of a playmaker than a scorer and he knows that. Thursday was one of those games for him and the Sixers.
“It’s not a hard game,” finished Harden. “I’m not gonna force it and, obviously, I want to score the basketball, but I’m a playmaker as well. So I won’t look too much into scoring.”
Game 7 is back in Boston on Sunday.
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