On April 15, Beijing time, 76ers star Embiid talked about teammate Harden in an interview today, and the emperor hoped that Harden could show more aggression on the playoff stage.
Embiid said: "I told him to let him be himself, Harden did a good job in terms of organization, but we needed him to be aggressive and try to score, especially when I was facing the Raptors' way of defending, we needed everyone on the team to come forward.
The 76ers will play against the Raptors in the first round of the playoffs, and the Raptors' defensive strategy against Embiid has almost never changed in the past two years, and the Nass coach has always used a bag defense against the Emperor.
After Harden joined the 76ers, Philadelphia played against the Raptors twice, but lost both games. In the first game, Harden sent 17 points, 9 boards and 8 assists on 5 of 12 games, and Beard had 13 points, 4 boards and 15 assists on 3 of 12 games, although Harden's statistics did not look bad in these two games, but the average of 12 shots per game did show that Harden did not play enough aggressively on the offensive end, and the average of 15 points per game was far lower than his season average of 22 points per game.
The Raptors have a very deep forward group, each tall and long arm, Harden did struggle with the Raptors' defense in the regular season. In fact, Harden has never played an amazing performance on the offensive end this season, scoring only 39 points at the top, especially after joining Philadelphia and only once to get 30+.
In an interview today, Harden said that his hamstrings are healthy and he is not stressed about the upcoming playoffs, and it remains to be seen how Beard will play in the first round.