PHILADELPHIA – After James Harden had the two worst consecutive shooting games of his entire career in Games 2 and 3 of the Philadelphia 76ers‘ Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Boston Celtics, coach Doc Rivers decided to remind his star guard of who he is heading into Game 4.
“I sent him a gospel song,” Rivers later said with a laugh. “The title of it is, ‘You Know My Name?’
PHILADELPHIA — After James Harden had the two worst consecutive shooting games of his entire career in Games 2 and 3 of the Philadelphia 76ers‘ Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Boston Celtics, coach Doc Rivers decided to remind his star guard of who he is heading into Game 4.
“I sent him a gospel song,” Rivers later said with a laugh. “The title of it is, ‘You Know My Name?’
“Nobody can guard Joel one-on-one,” Tucker said. “There’s no way. I’m sorry. It’s no disrespect to [Horford] or anybody else. But I’ve guarded him for a lot of years and when he’s aggressive and assertive, it’s impossible. And I seen him two, three plays in a row not do that. And we can’t have it. We can’t have it. Not with the season on the line. We can’t have it.”
Fortunately for the 76ers, they had Harden turning back the clock to his own MVP days for the second time in a week. Harden buried a runner to tie the game with 15 seconds to go in regulation, only for Marcus Smart to miss a potential winning 3 at the buzzer. Then in overtime, Harden’s go-ahead 3 came off a terrifically designed out-of-timeout play by Rivers that got Embiid matched up with Jayson Tatum inside, causing Jaylen Brown to react with a double-team that left Harden wide open in the corner
“Just a bad read,” Brown said of his decision to double-team Embiid down low, leaving Harden open for the winning shot. “That’s it. A gamble at the wrong time. Big shot by James Harden, but that’s my fault. I take full accountability. Just a bad read.”
Sunday’s game winner, coupled with his winning 3 in the waning seconds of Game 1 last Monday, are two of Harden’s three go-ahead field goals in his career with less than 30 seconds remaining in a playoff game.
