NEW YORK — Philadelphia 76ers star James Harden now has two games with his new team under his belt. His latest was impressive: 29 points, 16 assists, 10 rebounds and five steals in a 125-109 win at the New York Knicks on Sunday afternoon.
This has been a terrific start for Harden with this new team. It is even more impressive considering this was only Harden’s second game since Feb. 2. He had been dealing with a hamstring issue.
After Sunday’s win, he gave an update on his body.
“I feel good,” said Harden. “This is my second game in damn near a month, but just my body feels great. I haven’t felt this way, honestly, in a really, really long time. Just my pop, me getting to the rim, an extra step, it feels really great.”
The explosiveness is the most important thing for Harden. He has to be able to get into a rhythm and work on regaining his league MVP level of play from the past.
“I just gotta continue to work,” Harden added. “Continue to build my body, my legs, and just keep pushing.”
As far as his comfort level, Harden has not been afraid to get in his teammates’ ears. This is only his second game, so there is a lot of work to do, but the Sixers have to like what they have seen in the first two games of the Harden era.
“We got a long way to go,” he acknowledged. “This is Game 2 for me. Long way to go, but I like the direction that we’re in especially defensively. That’s gonna be where we hang our hats on. If we can get stops, offensively it’s gonna be pretty easy. We got shooting; we got attacking.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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