On March 21, Beijing time, Philadelphia was reversed by the Raptors 88-93 at home. Harden, who performed in the lull, was caught by reporters after the game asking about deadly offensive fouls + malicious fouls in the final moments. Bearded didn't want to talk much, though, and he focused on tomorrow's back-to-back Heat game. Manager Rivers was angry about the loss and criticized the team for lacking a sense of urgency.
Embiid did not attend the press conference, he was punched in the mouth during the match and rushed to see a dentist after the game. The bearded man had to face the persecution of many reporters.
Regarding the performance of this battle, Harden said: "It is very simple, I just need to play better. I had too many turnovers today (6 in the whole game) and I could have helped my teammates more. ”
Harden made four mistakes in the final quarter, including three in the opening 2 minutes of the final quarter, and twice scored by the opponent's fast-break dunk, giving up 4 points in vain. Harden had a fatal offensive foul with 2.7 seconds left in the game. He dribbled into the basket, but Raptors player Boucher stepped forward and Harden knocked him off.
The referee blew Harden's offensive foul, and after watching the video, he blew Harden for a first-degree malicious foul because Harden's elbow hit Boucher's face, and the Raptors made two free throws to lock up the victory.
Harden went to the referee theory, but to no avail. Of that offensive foul, Harden said: "I don't want to talk too much, the referee told me it was a very obvious foul and I don't know what else I could do. But there's no doubt I need to play better. ”
This game was largely lost to Harden, and his performance in the final quarter was disastrous, with consecutive mistakes to send points, two penalties not to score to the opponent, offensive fouls + malicious fouls to completely bury the game.
Philadelphia will play back-to-back heat tomorrow, and Harden said he feels good and plans to play tomorrow.
Philadelphia coach Rivers was unhappy with the players' performance in this game, criticizing the players for lacking a sense of urgency.
'We did very badly on the offensive end tonight, except for the first 8 or 9 minutes of the game, we have been doing poorly on the offensive end, we have just been beaten up and we lack a sense of urgency on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends. Rivers said.
It is worth mentioning that Boucher, who made Harden's offensive foul, was also asked about that key defense after the game. Boucher said he learned from former teammate Lowry how to create offensive fouls.
"I used to jump up and cover my opponents, but I learned from Lowry about the angle of making offensive fouls and standing positions, and creating an offensive foul is the same as a block." Boucher said.