PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers appeared in trouble at home on Saturday afternoon.
The Sixers trailed Denver by 15 at halftime after allowing the Nuggets to shoot 65.9% from the floor in the first half. The Sixers struggled with Nikola Jokic and Denver’s offense.
Tobias Harris was scoreless at halftime and was 0-for-3 from the floor. He wasn’t making much of an impact, and the Sixers needed more from him.
After halftime, Harris took the defensive assignment on Jamal Murray, and he was terrific. Murray shot 2-for-7 in the second half, and the Sixers rallied to win, 126-119.
“I was gonna go with De’Anthony (Melton) and then I went over to Tobias and I said ‘Can you guard Murray?’ we can get bigger, we can have more size, I won’t say what he said when I asked him the question,” laughed coach Doc Rivers. “It was filled with bad language in a good way, and he did it. That was good for us.”
When asked about what he said to Rivers, Harris responded by saying he was ready for the challenge.
“He asked me if I could guard somebody,” Harris laughed. “I don’t know if he thought I would tell him no or something, but that’s never the case. I thought just for me, that gave me a lot of energy on the floor just going out and focusing on defensive at that point. Doing whatever I can to slow the other guy down. I know how good Murray is as a scorer and what he means to their offense, but it’s collective.”
Harris also had a huge defensive play when he stripped Jokic, which led to Tyrese Maxey getting fouled and the Sixers extending their lead to 120-112.
“I also saw when Jokic had the ball, he had his back turned,” Harris added. “I usually don’t take those type of gambles, but I thought to myself that he’s too far removed for this guy in the corner, I can go get this real quick. Just learning and I’ve been in those positions of guarding some top guys in the NBA. It’s something that I wasn’t prepared to do early on in my career, but it’s just growth in my development and game and I look forward to more and more matchups like that.”
In terms of his offense, Harris scored 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting and he knocked down two 3s after halftime. This came after a listless first half where he was nowhere to be seen.
“I just got some more looks,” he stated. “I was able to come out in the second half and get the ball in different positions that allowed me to drive to the basket. In the second half, those two 3s that I had, just getting my feet set and being ready to shoot and knock it down. Just about different opportunities.”
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