‘MVP’ James Harden Wows Twitter by Scoring 45 in 76ers’ Win vs. Jayson Tatum, Celtics

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So much for the James Harden playoff narratives.

The 2017-18 MVP turned in one of the most memorable performances of his career and put the Philadelphia 76ers on his back while leading them to a 119-115 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series at TD Garden on Monday.

He needed to be brilliant for the visitors to have a chance with Joel Embiid sidelined by a knee injury, and he answered the call in dominant fashion. With the 76ers trailing by one in the final seconds, he got the switch onto Al Horford he was looking for and calmly drilled a cold-blooded three-pointer to put his team up for good.

Harden finished with 45 points and six assists on 17-of-30 shooting from the field and 7-of-14 from deep and earned plenty of well-deserved social-media love along the way:

To say the Celtics were playing with their food with Embiid sidelined would be understating how excellent Harden was throughout the game.

He kept his team within striking distance even when Boston shot a blistering 17-of-20 in the first quarter alone and made sure the game didn’t get out of hand when Jayson Tatum took over in the second quarter.

Viewers could feel the nervous energy emanating from the Boston crowd with every one of his step backs or drives to the lane, and he drew enough defensive attention that Tobias Harris and De’Anthony Melton were able to provide much-needed secondary scoring for stretches as well.

Then in the fourth quarter, Harden played off screens on possession after possession and unleashed multiple clutch threes whenever he had a sliver of space. Horford looked lost on defense whenever he switched onto the guard, and the 76ers took full advantage.

Still, it looked like the Celtics would find a way to escape with a win when they had the ball and a one-point lead in the final minute. That’s when Malcolm Brogdon made one of the worst passes one will ever see in a playoff game to set up Tyrese Maxey for a go-ahead dunk. Tatum answered with two free throws, but Harden’s three on the ensuing possession was the game’s biggest play.

This means the 76ers now have home-court advantage regardless of what happens in Wednesday’s Game 2 and might choose to rest Embiid for another contest as a result. And Harden might just steal another one if he plays like he did Monday.