The Philadelphia 76ers shocked a lot of people when they went into the TD Garden and defeated the Boston Celtics, 119-115, in Game 1 on Monday. The Sixers did so without the services of MVP front-runner Joel Embiid who sat out due to a sprained LCL in his right knee.
They won thanks to the heroics of James Harden. The Beard went for 45 points on 17-for-30 shooting, and he drilled the go-ahead triple over Al Horford with 8.4 seconds left to give the Sixers the lead for good.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith hopped on “First Take” and was in shock while heaping praise on Harden following the huge performance:
I gave them zero chance without Joel Embiid. I wasn’t talking about the game, we’re talking about the series. Overall, I give them zero chance without Joel Embiid. I just don’t believe they have what it takes, and then James Harden comes out there and he reminds us of the star that he can be on any given night. Not as an aside, just to deviate a little bit, Doc Rivers. I love me some Doc Rivers. I’ve known him for a quarter century. I love this man, but he and I have had debates about this time and time again, because he gets over sensitive to certain things when it comes to somebody like James Harden. ‘He’s a future Hall of Famer. You hear all the other things about him, but you don’t hear this.’ Well, the reason you hear the things that you’ve heard about James Harden is because we know he’s a future Hall of Famer. So obviously, when the postseason arrives, there are expectations that come with the level of greatness that you’ve distributed or displayed rather, in front of the masses for years and years and years come postseason trike, obviously, we’ve seen a little bit less from. Last night arguably was James Harden’s greatest postseason performance start to finish. I thought he was absolutely spectacular. I never saw it coming.
I did not see this coming, but because it has arrived, the Philadelphia 76ers now have an advantage. They’ve got home-court advantage. This series is going to be very interesting. The Boston Celtics had better get on their game or the Sixers could end up bouncing them out in six.
If Embiid can’t return in this series, then it will still be a very tall task to knock off the Celtics, but if Harden plays like this then they will have a very good chance to do so.
Game 2 of this series is set for Wednesday at 8 p.m. EDT.
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