On April 8, Beijing time, Philadelphia lost 114-119 to the Raptors. Harden still feels cold in this game, and although he has 15 assists, he shot 3-of-12 and 1-of-4 from three-point range. In the past 5 games, Harden has not felt good, which has affected the Philadelphia team's record and made it difficult for Embiid to attack the MVP. If Harden is still in such a slump, Philadelphia's championship this season will be basically useless.
The US media Outlets listed Harden's offensive statistics for the past 5 games. Bearded played the Pistons on April 1, shooting 4-of-15 and 2-of-9 from three-point range to score 18 points. Harden scored 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting for the Hornets on April 3 and 2-of-6 from three-point range. Harden scored 21 points on 4-of-13 shooting and 2-of-7 from three-point range to the Cavaliers on April 4. He scored 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting for the Pacers on April 6 and 2-of-7 from three-point range. Then it was this game that played the Raptors to score 13 points.
Harden has averaged 15 points in his last five games, shooting 19-of-60 from the field, 9-of-33 from three-point range, shooting just 31.7 percent from the field and 27.3 percent from three-point range.
What happened to Harden? He wasn't on the injury list, indicating that he didn't have major problems with his body and could play. Philadelphia currently finishes fourth in the East with a record of 49 wins and 31 losses, 0.5 wins behind Boston, who is third in the East, and one win behind the Bucks. Philadelphia have 2 games left, against the Pacers and Pistons. Even if the team wins the remaining two games, it may not be able to improve the rankings. Philadelphia is likely to end up in fourth place in the East.
This situation is not good for Embiid to hit the MVP. If Philadelphia moves up to second in the East, embiid can add points to the MVP. Unfortunately, Philadelphia's performance in the end-of-season sprint stage was not stable, mainly because Harden had a cold hand recently. On the latest NBA official MVP list, Jokic is first and Embiid is second. The MVP odds list issued by the bookmaker, Jokic is also pushing Embiid to rank first.
Philadelphia's failure to rush to second place in the East not only affects Embiid's impact on MVP, but also has a certain impact on the team's playoff journey, if promoted to second, then Philadelphia can have home advantage in the first two rounds of the playoffs, and fall in the fourth place in the East, if you break through the first round, the second round will not have home advantage.
In addition, if Harden is in this state in the playoffs, the Philadelphia team simply cannot go far in the playoffs. Harden left the Nets for Philadelphia to impact the championship. Philadelphia also brought in Harden to rush the championship. However, Harden is now in a slump, and the team's prospects for a championship this season have been overshadowed.