James Harden emerges from the grave to give the Sixers a wild Game 1 win. Now, all they need is Embiid.
Harden #Harden
The man who everybody left for dead arrived at the top of the key with 12 seconds remaining, his team trailing by two. It had already been the finest playoff performance of James Harden’s career, a virtuoso 42-point outing that his 33-year-old body had managed to deliver despite carrying the weight of four other players. This was on the road, eight days removed from his most recent game, the league’s presumptive MVP sitting in street clothes, everybody else on the Sixers sitting on Harden’s shoulders.
He dribbled to his left, then to his right, then twice between the legs. And then Harden did exactly what you found yourself expecting him to do: stepped back calmly, rose into his shot, and delivered a dagger.
This was one of those performances that you end up remembering long after you start forgetting seemingly more important things, a 45-point explosion capped by a game-winning three-pointer that lifted a team that should not have had a chance at a 119-115 victory.
I mean, it was over. Wasn’t it? Imminent death by a thousand back-cuts. And give-and-gos. And coast-to-coasts. Wherever the Celtics went, however they chose to get there, the only resistance they encountered was the wind in their hair. Forget the white board, Doc. Just give the fellas some ear protectors and orange flares.
That’s what you were thinking at halftime, wasn’t it?
The score may not have said it, but the Sixers didn’t have close to a chance at stopping these Celtics. They’d just allowed Boston to shoot 74% from the field, the vast majority of their 38 attempts coming on wide open cuts to the basket.
You had to wonder what Joel Embiid was thinking as he sat there at the end of the Sixers bench with his hands on his knees. Here it was, the biggest game yet of his best season yet, and all he could do was watch his opponent exploit the fact that he wasn’t there. Or maybe you didn’t need to wonder, because you could see it on his face on the Celtics’ final possession of the second quarter, as Jayson Tatum dribbled through four Sixers defenders en route to another easy two.
No way they can withstand two more quarters of this. That’s what everyone was thinking.
Except Harden.
Nope, not him. He’d come out firing and, lo and behold, that’s what he continued to do. With 7:40 left in the game, he knifed down the lane off the dribble and exploded toward the rim for a finger roll layup that tied the game at 96-96. The next time down the court, he crossed over a defender and stepped back behind the three-point line to give his team the lead. A few minutes later, he drove to the rim and then whipped a pass back to the top of the arc, where Tobias Harris drained a three-pointer over the defense Harden had just imploded.
This was him. That guy the Sixers acquired at the trade deadline last season. The guy who never arrived to last year’s Eastern Conference semifinals against the Miami Heat. The free-agent-to-be who more than a few Sixers fans would be more than happy to see depart. Maybe you kept waiting for last year’s version of Harden to return. Well, he never did.
Somehow, the numbers don’t do it justice. Harden played 39 minutes, attempted 30 shots, hit 17, seven of them from three-point range. His go-ahead three-pointer with nine seconds left gave him 45 points, the highest total in a long playoff career.
Somehow, the Sixers have their first 1-0 lead in a conference semifinals since Embiid broke into the league. Give the Sixers credit. They played the game they needed to play on the offensive end. They got the performance they needed to get from Harden. They got the productive minutes they needed from De’Anthony Melton. As usual, they got all that P.J. Tucker had to give.
This game was a lot of things. But, mostly two. First, it was an example of how much deeper the Sixers are now than they were the last time they began a second round without their most valuable player. Mostly, though, it was a testament to their potential if Embiid can get himself back on the court.
Say this for the NBA’s presumptive MVP: Game 1 laid bare just how deserving he was this year, and probably the past couple as well. That’s how glaring his absence was on the defensive end of the court. The Celtics scored their first six points on off-ball cuts to the basket, including two backcuts by Tatum that went completely unaccounted for by the Sixers. The Celtics hit 14 of their first 15 shots and scored 24 of their first 33 points in the paint.
The Sixers need their big man back. It goes without saying that they cannot win three more games like this. But all that really matters right now is that Harden somehow won them one.
James Harden’s sixth sense: What makes playmaking critical to the Sixers star’s game
©2023 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.