On March 8, Beijing time, the Bulls ushered in a showdown with the 76ers, and this game was also the first time that Harden turned to the new owner to usher in a confrontation with his childhood brother DeRozan, and the 76ers who sat at home finally relied on the excellent performance of Harden, Embiid, Maxi, Niang and others, and did not let the Bulls led by DeRozan succeed in kicking the pavilion, and took the opponent 121-106 without bloodshed. In this campaign, DeRozan played 39 minutes, 6 of 17 shots to get 23 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists of the quasi-triple-double, and harden (the last game against the Heat) although the hand is not good, only 5 of 15 shots, but still got 16 points, 8 rebounds and 14 assists of the quasi-triple-double, so this brother showdown, the two sides are really not divided, both handed over the all-around data sheet.
Before this, Harden had played 3 games for the Nets and bulls, with a record of 1 win and 2 losses, because the Nets lacked major generals, so they were basically firmly suppressed by the Bulls led by DeRozan, and today's game wearing a 76ers jersey Harden, can finally raise his eyebrows, so that Harden and DeRozan have won 2 victories in 4 meetings this season.
Admittedly, not long ago, DeRozan helped the Bulls to the top of the Eastern Conference, and successive high-scoring performances once became popular candidates for MVP, but recently in the face of the Grizzlies, Heat, Eagles, Bucks and today's 76ers, the Bulls have unfortunately swallowed defeats, suffered a wave of 5 consecutive losses, and the record has also fallen to the fourth place in the East with 39 wins and 26 losses, only 0.5 wins ahead of the fifth-place Celtics, if they continue to be in such a slump, it is likely that they will give up the position in the upper half.
The reason why the Bulls dropped the chain during this time is largely because of the ups and downs of DeRozan's state, after winning the 14th weekly best award of his career not long ago, DeRozan seems to have fallen into the spell of winning the best of the week, the last 5 games, DeRozan has 3 games with a shooting rate of no more than 40%, the highest score is only 31 points against the Grizzlies on February 27, completely losing the previous fiery hand of 30+ per game, as the season deepens, It seems that DeRozan has also entered a period of exhaustion.
On the other hand, Harden, who did not perform well in the first half of the season, after switching to the 76ers, is to regain the MVP of the rocket period before, after joining this new owner, Harden can average 24.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 12.4 assists in these 5 games, and the three shooting rates are 53%, 45% and 89%, respectively, almost able to enter the 180 club, compared to the previous in the Nets period is completely changed a person, and more surprisingly, Harden helped the 76ers win all five games, and if it weren't for the last game against the Heat, Harden would most likely have helped the 76ers to a six-game winning streak (Harden didn't play in the game against the Heat on March 6, and the team swallowed the loss 82-99).
In the case of Harden regaining his peak, the 76ers' record is also a long rainbow, and they are currently rising to the second place in the East with a record of 40 wins and 24 losses, and there are only 3 wins away from the Heat at the top of the list. I don't know how DeRozan will feel when he sees his former good brother "go low and go high", but he has begun to go downhill.