The Philadelphia 76ers were looking to get back on track on Monday when they took on the Houston Rockets to finish their three-game road trip. Following two losses, the Rockets, who entered 6-17, offered an opportunity to get right for Philadelphia.
On top of that, the Sixers welcomed James Harden back to the lineup after he missed 14 games due to a right foot tendon strain. None of that mattered. The Rockets walked away with a 132-123 win in double overtime. They held Harden to 4-for-19 shooting and forced him into seven turnovers.
The Beard had 21 points and seven assists while playing 38 minutes in his return to the floor.
“I feel good,” Harden told reporters. “We didn’t come away with the win like we wanted to, but for myself personally, I felt good. Too many turnovers, easy shots that I missed that just felt rusty for whatever reason, but definitely a game we should’ve won.”
Harden was supposed to be on a minutes restriction. The Sixers had a plan for him. Instead, he ended up playing nearly 40 minutes after missing a month of basketball.
“The whole minutes restriction was kind of weird to me just because I play the first five minutes, then I come out,” Harden added. “Then in the second quarter was kind of the same thing, and then the third quarter, I come out the first five minutes and don’t come back in the whole third quarter, you know what I mean? Then I play the whole fourth quarter so it was like, I just didn’t know. I was all over the place. I’m not used to it or whatever. So not making excuses. I gotta be better.”
As he explained, Harden had a tough time finishing at the basket. All four of his field goals came from 3-point range, and they were against tough defense. When he did get to the basket, he wasn’t able to finish, which hurt him.
“Rehabbing and working out by yourself for a month straight without really like live contact and people guarding you and all that, basketball,” Harden finished. “Things necessary to translate into the game is difficult. Like I said, the results wasn’t what I wanted and as a team what we wanted, but just continue to work and get some really good days at practice and get ready for Friday.”
The Sixers will host the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday to kick off a seven-game homestand.
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