On March 21, the Philadelphia 76ers lost at home to the Raptors, losing 88-93 and missing out on a three-game winning streak. The 76ers after the loss were overtaken by the Bucks and fell to third place in the East. The 76ers' "Denti combination" performed poorly in key moments, Embiid 21 points, 13 boards and 2 assists, Harden 17 points, 9 boards and 8 assists. Harden, in particular, only scored 2 points in the final quarter, while the final stage of malicious foul + layup free throws were all lost, and after the game, he turned away and returned to the locker room.
So what about Harden's crotch? This can be seen from his performance in the last few minutes:
Harden scored the last 4 1/2 points and did not score 1 point.
With 2 minutes and 26 seconds left, Harden lost both free throws, and the 76ers trailed by one point at this time;
In the last minute, Harden broke through and went to the basket, did not score, and the ball was converted;
In the final 2.7 seconds, Harden chose to break through the layup with 2 points behind, he elbowed Butcher, a first-level malicious foul, and the Raptors killed the suspense of victory and defeat with two free throws.
From these, it can be seen that in the last moments of today's game, Harden not only did not help the team, but also helped "pour help", two penalties were lost, the basket was not hit, both times were within 2 points of the point difference, the key ball lost. When it came time to have a chance to have a draw and a killer, Harden went it alone, only to be elbowed by Butcher, a first-level malicious foul that directly caused the 76ers to lose.
After the game, many people lamented that the reason why Harden performed so poorly was that on the one hand, he rarely stood up at key moments to save the team, on the other hand, he did not want to meet the Nets in the first round. Because the current Nets record with 11 regular season games remaining, behind the sixth-place Cavaliers in the East as many as 4 wins, if you want to counterattack, there is little hope. In this case, the Nets are very likely to participate in the playoffs, and if the first round of the playoffs is seventh in the East, it will play against the second place in the East in the first round of the playoffs.
The 76ers were ranked second in the East before the game, and if the Nets are really the seventh in the East to advance to the playoffs, then a showdown between the 76ers and the Nets will be staged, and today the 76ers lost, overtaken by the Bucks, and have slipped to third place. It's no wonder there's speculation that the 76ers don't want to challenge the mighty Nets in the first round.
In addition to winning and losing, this game we saw Harden's crotch at the crucial moment, and Embiid and Harris were also snatched by opponents in the final stages, this team is not bad, but whether it can withstand the pressure in the playoffs is still unknown.