After the trade deadline, the Nets and 76ers game became the focus of the league, after all, the two teams completed a seismic trade that shocked the league with Harden to trade Simmons, Curry Jr. and Drummond. In this game, although Simmons is still unable to play, it will return to the home of the 76ers as a Nets player, and Harden will face his old club at home, facing his brothers Irving and Durant, who have a certain contradiction with him.
After the trade deadline, the two teams were in the opposite state. Prior to this campaign, Harden played five games for the 76ers, and the team won all the games, and in these five games, Harden got a large double-double performance in four of these games. The Nets, on the other hand, are in a relatively bad situation, and after getting new signings, although they ended their 11-game losing streak, they did not find a good way to win. In the five games before this campaign, the Nets had only achieved a record of 1 win and 4 losses. Therefore, many fans in this campaign are optimistic that the 76ers will easily defeat the Nets.
But the final result of this campaign was a big surprise, the Nets actually won the 76ers in the recent state of the game by a big score on the road. In the first quarter of the game, the 76ers suddenly lost in the final 3 minutes, and the Nets played a 14-1 wave to extend the lead to 17 points. In the second quarter, despite Embiid's repeated fouls, the Nets maintained a point difference, leading 72-51 at the end of the quarter. In the second half, although the 76ers tried to chase points, the Nets were in hot shape and established a 30-point lead. In the final quarter, the 76ers finally had no way to return to heaven, and lost to their opponents 100:129.
In this game, the Nets played a long-lost typical team basketball, and as many as 6 people on the team scored in double figures, including Irving, Durant and Curry Jr., who all scored 20+ and scored 71 points together, and Johnson, who came off the bench, also scored 16 points. On the 76ers side, although Embiid caused fouls throughout the game, got 19 free throw opportunities, and hit 15 of them, his offensive efficiency was very inefficient, with only 5 hits in 17 shots. Harden's performance in this campaign was very bad, only 3 of 17 shots in the game, only 11 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, plus or minus of the lowest -30 in the team.
The reason why this battle will eventually have such an incredible result cannot be separated from the following points. First of all, the Nets are undoubtedly the more prepared side of this game, and after Irving slashed 50 points to win the game in the last game, the Nets team in this campaign is full of morale to play at home with the 76ers. The boos of Simmons' home fans undoubtedly made the Nets feel extremely angry, which increased the nets' combat effectiveness. From the first quarter of the game, they played very tough, as Rivers said after the game, the 76ers actually flinched in the face of the Nets' physical confrontation.
Secondly, in the case of extremely good performances in recent games, Harden's performance in this game is extremely sluggish, shooting only 17% of the whole game, including 4 mistakes, and 6 times the opponent is big caped. In this game, Harden shot 0-of-10 from two-point range, becoming the second player to achieve such an embarrassing record this season after Westbrook. In the 76ers' point-chasing stage, it was precisely because of Harden's crotch-pulling performance that the team did not succeed in chasing points in the end. However, this is largely due to the fact that the Nets are too familiar with Harden's style of play, so they have targeted its defense, resulting in the latter being fully limited in this game.
In the end, as Harden said after the game, they were in a smooth state in the first few games and the team didn't experience much of a challenge. In this game, facing the full-fire and extremely tough Nets, they instantly lost the way to deal with it, which is something that the 76ers need to pay attention to for the rest of the season. It is worth mentioning that before this game, Harden and Embiid became the hottest duo in the league, the former not only in terms of personal scoring, but also became the top organizer in the league, and the 76ers' offense became orderly under his combing.
With Harden's help, the latter has also performed extremely well in recent games, and in the last game, he also cut a large double-double of 43 points and 14 rebounds. Because the two are the same combination of one inside and one outside, and have a strong dominance, many fans have even begun to compare them with the previous pair of duos with such dominance, that is, the "OK combination" composed of Kobe Bryant and O'Neal. The OK duo is arguably one of the best duo in NBA history so far, and the duo have teamed up to reach the Finals four times and won three consecutive championships, which has had a huge impact on the entire league.
Therefore, at present, some fans have praised Harden and Embiid as an "OK combination" which is a great affirmation of them. But in reality, this is somewhat exaggerated. After all, so far, the two have only worked together for 6 games and have not yet experienced the test of key battles, as one of the OK combinations, O'Neal, said, he believes that Harden has not stood up in key games for a long time, which means that the two do not deserve to be called a replica of the "OK combination". Of course, if they can lead the 76ers to the championship this season, then their status will be much higher.
From the perspective of this game, the 76ers can be described as the original form, whether it is Harden and Embiid, who have performed well in the previous few games, or Maxi, they have not been able to play a normal performance in this game, and the two core teams in this game even have a plus-minus of the lowest -30 in the whole team. For the Nets, the victory in this campaign will greatly improve their confidence, after all, the two teams currently have as many as 7 wins.
However, losing such a game is not too bad for the 76ers, after all, they have learned their due lesson from this game, which is also the only way for them to rush to the championship next. This proves that harden and Embiid must become stronger in the next game to deal with all unknown challenges.