At 0:30 a.m. Beijing time, the Hornets, who were ninth in the Eastern Division with 40 wins and 37 losses, came to the home of the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers have lost to the Suns, Bucks and Pistons in their previous three games, and the team is in the haze of losses, desperate for a big win to add confidence to the team.
The Hornets ushered in the return of team leader Hayward, and both teams are eager to consolidate their rankings. In the first quarter, the 76ers who played at home quickly pulled the score apart, but the Hornets responded with a good response, and the substitute came off the bench to catch up with the score. In the case of a one-time reversal, Embiid was ordered to pull the score back apart.
Yi Bian fought again, and the 76ers suddenly felt hot in the second half, and soon beat the Hornets to no end. The outside line blossomed more, the inside Embiid gave and demanded, and soon the point difference reached 20+ after the end of the third quarter. The 76ers' three-point rain in the last quarter has no intention of stopping, after a bombardment, the point difference came to 30 points, and the 76ers finally won a big win at home, currently ranking fourth in the East with a record of 47 wins and 30 losses, and still have a 0.5 win difference with the third place in the East.
In this game, Harden played 31 minutes, shooting 4 of 10 from the field, including 2 of 6 three-pointers and 2 of 2 free throws, and had 12 points, 8 rebounds, 13 assists and 1 steal. Embiid chopped melons and cut vegetables to get 29 points, 14 boards and 6 assists.
It is worth mentioning that embiid did not continue to chase the goal of the league's scoring champion when the team was leading the opponent by a large score. This is puzzling to fans and netizens, as the scoring gap between him and the two players in the league's top two scorers is very small.
According to the NBA's official statistics, the competition in the NBA scoring list is very fierce, and the gap between James, Alphabet Brother and Embiid is very small. James maintained a narrow lead of 30.27 per game after scoring 38 points in the last game, followed by Alphabet Brother at 30.11 per game, while Embiid averaged only 30 points per game.
For Harden's performance in this game, coach Rivers changed his previous evaluation of Harden (the previous 76ers lost, Rivers believed that Harden held too much ball, affecting the performance of the bench). "I love the way James Harden plays on the court and drives the whole team, Harden can score whenever he wants, but he knows the other teammates are in good shape today," he said. ”
Rivers' words are not without reason. The 76ers had 12 players rotating in this game, and all but Embiid and Harden had the remaining 10 people scored. In addition, Sebel, Harris, Maxi, Milton and Niang scored in double figures.
Although Harden did not score much, in the total 38 assists of the whole team, Harden contributed 13 times, and the plus-minus value of the game was +27, second only to Sable and Harris.
Obviously, after Harden came to the 76ers, the data and performance could not be compared with the Rockets' self. This also made the fans who followed him very dissatisfied. It is even thought that his numbers are inferior to simmons before him, and that the latter can also alleviate embiid's defensive pressure. But in this game, Harden affected the game with 13 assists, and he needs more of this performance to prove himself to break the doubts about him.
The playoffs are coming, and Harden's performance is the upper limit of the 76ers!