BOSTON–Everybody knows what’s been said about Philadelphia 76ers star James Harden. There have been doubts about whether he can still be that ruthless scorer he once was during his MVP heyday and there have been questions about whether he has any scoring chops left to give.
That thought process was proven wrong on Monday when Harden delivered a virtuoso playoff performance. The future Hall of Famer had 45 points on 17-for-30 shooting to lead the Sixers to an impressive 119-115 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the semifinals while missing Joel Embiid. He knocked down the go-ahead 3-pointer over Al Horford with 8.4 seconds left to get the job done.
After the win, Harden was asked if this game was a statement. He responded with a bit of a message.
“I don’t need to make a statement,” he explained. “What happens internally with the 76ers organization, coaches, my teammates, what they expect me to do, all throughout the course of the year was be a facilitator and get Joel the basketball and score when necessary.”
Game 1 against the Celtics was the definition of it being necessary. Harden has sacrificed so much in his game to help the Sixers succeed. He has been willing to do whatever is needed. Normally, he needs to be a distributor. On Monday, he needed to be a scorer.
“Joel wasn’t here tonight,” Harden continued. “We knew that going into this series and now, it’s like ‘Alright, open the floor James, and be aggressive’ and tonight I was aggressive. It’s not that I’m not capable of doing it. it’s just this is my role for this team. Now if you want me to do this tonight, I can do that as well. I don’t think a lot of players can do that.”
There has been a lot that has been said about Harden and what he hasn’t been able to do on the floor rather than all of the excellent aspects he brings to the table. Sure, he isn’t leading the league in scoring anymore, but what he is doing is making sure the Sixers are in a position to succeed.
“The rest helped,” coach Doc Rivers said of Harden’s performance. “I thought the preparation helped and I thought that he had just the perfect mindset. He really did. I’m so happy for him because it just tells you what he can do on given nights and then he can be a point guard on given nights. It’s amazing. The guy’s a Hall of Famer and all you hear is the other stuff about him. You really do and he was fantastic.”
With that being said, Harden was happy to be in one of those scoring zones again to help Philadelphia.
“I haven’t felt one of those zones in a minute and it felt really good,” he smiled. “Just to be aggressive and shoot the basketball and do what I want. That felt really good and I’m capable of doing it. it felt good to make shots, to give ourselves a chance, to be on the road Game 1, and be aggressive. We won. That’s all that matters. I’m happy.”
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