The Philadelphia 76ers fell to the Houston Rockets, 132-123, in double overtime on a Monday night where it looked like the Sixers would get back on track. After all, the Rockets entered the contest 6-17, and the Sixers welcomed James Harden back to the lineup.
The return of Harden didn’t matter. The Rockets used their athleticism to come away with the win. They bothered the Sixers and forced them into 19 turnovers; Harden had seven.
Tobias Harris, who had 27 points and drilled seven 3-pointers, admitted Philadelphia will have to readjust to playing with Harden and Joel Embiid again after playing for a whole month without The Beard.
“Those are our best players and the offense flows through them as well,” Harris told reporters. “So we do have to get readjusted and figure out how we continue as a group to be at our best and to be efficient and to continue to put those guys in great positions to do what they do best and that’s score the basketball and make plays for the guys.”
The Sixers had been playing well with Shake Milton in the lineup and they had adjusted to the way he plays the game and runs the offense. Now Harden is back, and his play style is much different. So they have to adjust yet again while trying to pick up wins.
“When those guys are out for that period of time, and now back, it’s always been a thing for our whole group is figuring out the chemistry,” Harris added. “When you talk earlier, we’ve only had six games a whole group together, but even in those six games, we’re still trying to figure it out. So it’s gonna take time as well, but we still have enough talent and enough depth on this team to be able to, in the midst of gaining chemistry, to figure out ways to lock in and get wins.”
The Sixers have three days before kicking off a seven-game homestand with the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=71886]
[lawrence-related id=71863,71854,71837]