Doc Rivers praised Tobias Harris’ leadership, toughness in Sixers win

Tobias Harris has not had the easiest tenure thus far with the Philadelphia 76ers. He has had to make tons of adjustments and due to his talent and potential, the team gave him a 5-year $180 million max contract in the 2019 offseason. He did not live up to expectations in the 2019-20 season and he had to hear about it constantly.

The 2020-21 season then began in a bad way for him as he shot just 3-for-13 from the floor and the groans from the fans of Philadelphia grew louder. However, when the team needed him the most on Tuesday, he delivered.

The Sixers were struggling badly in the third quarter. Their only offense was coming from Harris and Joel Embiid as the rest of the team could not throw a rock in the ocean. Therefore, it was important that the ball ended up in their hands and they led the team to a win on Tuesday.

“I just thought in the second half, he got very aggressive on both ends,” lauded coach Doc Rivers. “My favorite play of the night had nothing to do with Tobias other than we’re bringing the ball down, Tobias ran and grabbed the ball from Ben, and told us to throw the ball in the post. Like he demanded that we post.”

It was that play that Rivers loved the most. It was one of those moments where Harris stepped up and did his job as a leader. It also takes a lot of mental toughness to fight through everything he has had to battle so far in Philadelphia.

“What I loved about that was Tobias had it going and he looked at the matchup and said ‘We’re going down to the post’,” Rivers continued. “That’s the type of stuff you love as a coach. That was the right decision too by the way. That leadership and that toughness that he showed was terrific tonight.”

Harris finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds in the game and his play in the second half was impressive. He had nine points in the third quarter and then had six big points in the fourth when the team really needed it.

“He was huge,” said Ben Simmons of Harris. “Whenever you have somebody going, you want to keep feeding them, and going with that momentum. He was great for us and Joel also was dominant so those two guys together had great offensive games and then defensively as a team, we really stepped up.”

The Sixers will now move on to face the Orlando Magic on the road on Thursday to close out the 2020 portion of their schedule.