PHILADELPHIA — When one thinks about Philadelphia 76ers star James Harden, they think buckets. They think about a ruthless scorer known as one of the best at putting the ball in the basket in NBA history.
He’s a three-time scoring champ who averaged 29.6 points per game during his nine seasons with the Houston Rockets. The guy knows how to score, and he has made it look easy at times.
However, he hasn’t been that guy for Philadelphia. Instead, he has been more of a distributor on the floor. He is averaging 10.3 assists to go along with 21.4 points as the offensive focus remains on Joel Embiid, who is currently the best scorer in the game. Then there’s Tobias Harris and Tyrese Maxey to take into account.
In a win over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday, Harden had 15 points and eight assists. That’s not very Harden-like, but Philadelphia scored 113 points.
“I’ll tell you what James has done a great job being different than what he was at Houston,” said Pistons coach Dwane Casey. “Being the primary scorer, he’s really adapted. He and Joel have gotten a little rhythm going with each other. Understanding where Joel wants the ball, getting it to him at the right time, a little pocket pass, free-throw line ISO, ready to play off for him, and that’s something different that James has done over his career. So kudos to him.”
The Sixers have needed Harden to find the balance between scoring and passing for this team to succeed. They don’t need him to be the ruthless scorer he was in Houston, and he has been sacrificing his offense to help Embiid get the job done.
“It’s something he had to do to help this team and he’s sacrificing because he still can go out for 25 or 30 if he felt like he needed to,” Casey added. “To sacrifice for this team, you can just tell from outside looking in, I’m not in their locker room, but it looks like he’s sacrificing for the benefit of the team.”
Harden and the Sixers will take on the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday to end the seven-game homestand.
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