Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris has been terrific all season long for the team as a clutch performer. He has always been the one the team turns to down the stretch in order to get a bucket when they need it the most.
In Wednesday’s 123-117 win over the Brooklyn Nets, Harris played 8:23 in the quarter and he had seven points on 2-for-5 shooting, but it’s clear that he was not himself. He was not the dynamic scorer that he normally is with the game on the line in the fourth.
Coach Doc Rivers pulled him in favor of Furkan Korkmaz late and that raised some alarms. Korkmaz has had himself a solid stretch lately, but he certainly isn’t Harris.
“He was limping around,” said Rivers. “I felt we could win the game without him. We didn’t want to take a chance and we did so, that was the reason.”
For the night, Harris did finish with 26 points on 11-for-17 shooting and he made two of his three triples. The Sixers needed all of his points in this win in order to come out on top and there was no guarantee that he would even play in this one.
“I’ve been having an ache in my knee so that was kind of limiting me in the fourth quarter,” Harris explained. “Kind of a day-by-day thing and give myself as much rest and take proper care of my knee like treatment-wise so I can feel better. Even going into today’s game, it was pretty much 50/50 If I was going to be able to go.”
Harris did miss a game on the road trip, against the Oklahoma City Thunder, so it makes sense as to why it was bothering him in this one.
“It’s a day-by-day thing,” he added. “Just with some rest and recovery hopefully, I can feel better come tomorrow and the next day.”
The Sixers next play the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday at home.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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