BOSTON — On a night when just about everything went wrong for the Philadelphia 76ers in a loss to the Boston Celtics, they received a great deal of offensive success out of James Harden, which should give Philadelphia hope.
In the 126-117 loss, Harden had a big night. He had 35 points on 9-for-14 shooting, he had 22 in the first half to keep the Sixers in the game, and he looked like the Harden a lot of people were hoping to see when Philadelphia acquired him from the Brooklyn Nets in February.
Harden, however, isn’t focused on individual success. He wants the team to win, and it didn’t on Tuesday.
“I feel pretty solid,” he explained. “We got a long journey, long way to go, but it’s not about me individually. I know what I’m capable of. It’s about doing the right things and trying to do whatever it takes to help this team win. For us, man, we felt like we had really good stretches where we were playing very, very well, and then there’s times where we allowed them too easy points and especially on the road. It’s gonna be difficult to recover. So learning lesson and watch the film, get better, and be ready to go on Thursday.”
Given Harden had such a big game, Philadelphia can feel confident he is working his way back to the player everybody knows he can be.
“He had great rhythm,” said coach Doc Rivers. “He saved us. Joel (Embiid) picks up those two fouls, we have to take him out, our rotation was taking James out first, but again that’s why you have these rotations set and then that happens. So we had to go away from that. It’s funny James was — I said ‘No you have to stay on’ and I thought that stretch saved the game and kept us in the game. He got going which was great for us. Really happy for him.”
Harden and the Sixers look to bounce back on Thursday in the home opener with the Milwaukee Bucks.
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