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(one) were responsible for the other ones. Tucker (two), Tobias Harris (one) and Danuel House Jr. Nearly 80 percent of his made shots have been unassisted so far, which is in line with his splits in past years, but he wasn't playing with a double-team-drawing machine in Embiid and another playmaker like Tyrese Maxey back then.Įmbiid got the assist on four of Harden's eight assisted buckets to date, while P.J. The Sixers need to find more ways to get Harden going off the ball, too.
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As they tighten up their defense and begin forcing more turnovers, that should help them generate a higher volume of run-out buckets, easing the pressure on their half-court offense. In other words, he isn't the only reason why the Sixers aren't getting into their offense quickly. While Harden's isolation-heavy play caused the Rockets to rank 27th in pace in 2018-19, they were third in 2016-17 and second in 2019-20. I don’t think we accomplished that goal a lot, but we did get it up there." "Our goal was to get it across half court by 20. "We really focused on that this morning: Just get the ball up," Sixers head coach Doc Rivers said after Monday night's win. Harden, who's averaging the second-most touches per game leaguewide (trailing only Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic) and is among the league leaders in average seconds per touch and average dribbles per touch, deserves some of the blame for that. The Sixers head into Wednesday night's game with the Raptors with the league's 13th-ranked offense and the slowest pace of any team. That isn't to say there isn't still room for Harden and the Sixers offense to grow. For me, just trying to keep the defense on their heels."
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"Just giving defenses different looks-having a variety, a package of things that you can go to," he said. He had 31 points on 13-of-24 shooting, nine assists and eight rebounds two nights later against the Milwaukee Bucks, who largely defended him with four-time All-Defensive team selection Jrue Holiday.Īfter the Bucks game, Harden spoke about the concerted effort he's making to vary up his shot diet this season.
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He had 35 points on 9-of-14 shooting, eight rebounds and seven assists against the Boston Celtics, who have the reigning Defensive Player of the Year in Marcus Smart and other plus defenders such as Derrick White, Malcolm Brogdon and Jaylen Brown. Harden isn't just doing this against rebuilding teams, either. Harden is also 7-of-12 in the restricted area and 7-of-16 on paint shots beyond the restricted area, while he's 12-for-30 on above-the-break threes. In only four games this year, Harden has already taken 14 mid-range shots. Most of the rest were in the restricted area (76) and in the paint (54), while he took only 15 mid-range shots in those 21 games. Nearly half (133) of Harden's 286 regular-season field-goal attempts with the Sixers last year were above-the-break three-pointers (133). Instead, he appears to have evolved his game to account for the effects of Father Time. Harden looks more spry early on this season than he did last year, but he still isn't routinely blowing by defenders.
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If these first few games are any indication, reports of Houston Harden’s demise might have been premature. "Since we got him, everybody expected the Houston James Harden," Embiid told reporters after the Sixers lost to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
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