Seemingly lost in the shuffle on a night where there were a lot of things happening in a big matchup between Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers, was the fact that Tobias Harris quietly scored 29 points.
In a 108-91 shocker of a win over Philadelphia, Harris led the Sixers with 29 points and eight rebounds while shooting 10-for-20 from the floor and he knocked down three from deep. The Sixers are paying him $180 million and they want him to continue to step up and take more shots in order for this whole thing to work.
“For sure and he did it again in a variety of ways,” said coach Brett Brown. “His spirit and his mentality, his downhill aggression. Even at the end, he’s telling me ‘I got it’ and I think we went on a 11-0 run during that fragile kind of stretch and Tobias kind of waved me off and he said ‘I got it’ and I said ‘That’s just fine’ and I thought that his mentality to hunt hoops and find buckets was big tonight and good for him. He had a heck of a game.”
The win on Saturday was another feather in the cap of this team as they continue to pick up these impressive wins led by Harris against the elite teams in the league. It gives the team a sense of pride and confidence that they can get these big wins, but it is also concerning when they drop games they should definitely win.
“Sometimes as the coach, it’s a little disturbing when you lay an egg on the road when you wished you didn’t,” Brown explained. “If you’re trying to find the silver lining, we were pretty good against the Celtics, Milwaukee and the Lakers. I thought that even the other night in Toronto, there were some positive things that came out of it. I love the spirit of the group and we look down and we have a starter in the NBA All-Star Game that’s on our bench and not playing. I like the spirit and sure feels a lot better when you can beat the Lakers. Some of those marquee games, to your point, do give you another layer of confidence.”
The Sixers will host the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday who are not the same Warriors they have been in the past as they lost Kevin Durant to free agency over the summer and then lost Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry to injuries. It will be a test for the Sixers to not have that letdown type of game for them.
Having Harris continue to find his offense will go a long way in continuing their winning ways. [lawrence-related id=24265,24254,24244]