On February 26, Beijing time, today, the NBA ushered in a strong dialogue, and the Philadelphia 76ers challenged the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road. This is a contest between the third place in the East and the seventh place in the West, from the ranking point of view, the 76ers obviously have a great advantage, plus this game Harden ushered in the team debut, the strength of the 76ers naturally needless to say. At the beginning of the first quarter, the 76ers led Harden and Embiid dominated the counter-attack, leading the opponent by nine points at 34-25. After Harden joined, the team's lethality was greatly improved.
In the first quarter, the 76ers got 16 free throws, hit 13 times, and the Timberwolves only got a total of 5 free throws in this quarter, entering the second quarter, Harden continued to be in good shape, he went into the box to make a foul and walked to the free throw line again to get points, Embiid took off the offensive rebound, passed to Harden, who was quick in the eyes, and then passed to the downside Maxi, Maxi hit the basket to counterattack, soon, Maxi strongly killed the basket and then hit, followed by Harden also hit 2 points, coincidentally, Harden hit a cold-blooded three-pointer in the bottom corner, and the half-court ended, The 76ers took advantage of the chase to extend the score to 16 points.
Harden felt hot, playing in the first half of 18 minutes on 4-of-6 shooting, 2-of-3 from three-point range and 7-of-8 from the free throw line, with 17 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists, without error. Easy side to fight again, Embiid continued to be in good shape, he received a pass from Sebel and hit the mid-range, and then with Harden to break down to the three-point line outside the three-point line to hit the three-point line, this quarter, Embiid dunked, shooting and three-pointers, Harden soon also played 3+1, the third quarter has 10 minutes left, the point difference has reached 22 points. Due to the large point difference, Harden and Embiid only made symbolic appearances in the fourth quarter.
In the end, the 76ers beat the Timberwolves 133-102. After this game, the 76ers won two straight games with a record of 36 wins and 23 losses, continuing to rank third in the East, and the Timberwolves recorded 32 wins and 29 losses, continuing to rank seventh in the West. In this game, Harden played 35 minutes, 7 of 12, 7 of 7 of three points, 8 of 9 from the free throw line, lightly took 27 points, 8 rebounds and 12 assists of the quasi-triple-double data, only 2 turnovers, plus-minus as high as +35, Embiid played only 31 minutes, 10 of 18, 3 of 5 three-pointers, 34 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists, plus or minus +25, double nuclear cut 61 points, 18 rebounds and 15 assists, completely dominating the game.
In addition, Maxi 28 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, 4 assists, Sable 11 points, 7 boards, 2 assists, 3 assists, Harris 6 points and 4 assists; Timberwolves, Downs cut 25 points, 7 boards and 3 assists, Edwards 15 points, 3 boards and 5 assists, Russell 21 points, 3 boards and 3 assists, McDaniels 10 points and 4 boards, Prince 8 points. After this game, Harden ushered in three major milestones, the first milestone, Harden became the third player in the history of the 76ers to score at least 20 points and 10 assists on his debut, the first two players are McAvoy and Jeff Hornacek.
The second milestone, according to statistics, is Harden's 12th half-time of the season to cut at least 15 points and 5 assists, and he is also the fourth player to do so this season, the other 3 are Trae Young (28), Doncic (21) and Jokic (18). The third milestone, with the three three-pointers scored in this game, Harden's career three-pointers reached 2550, and he became the only player in the active duty to do so, the other is Curry (3085), he is also the fourth player in history to do this, the other three are Curry, Ray Allen and Reggie Miller.
I have to say that Harden chose the right person and team, came to the 76ers to play less time, can reduce the risk of injury, the team can win, in the 76ers may be Irving and Nash wasted their precious youth, Embiid also ushered in the championship helper, at present, this is a win-win deal.