Thursday night time in Philly, as a still-inactive Ben Simmons seemed on, the Nets simply dealt with the Sixers, profitable 129-100. Right here’s the Philly Voice on the play of James Harden, who shot a depressing 3 for 17 and shot simply two free throws for 11 factors in opposition to his former squad:
James Harden was completely horrendous on this sport. All the problems he has been accused of getting when it issues within the playoffs got here roaring to the forefront in a sport with all eyes on it, and it was most likely the one greatest purpose the Sixers discovered themselves down 20 factors early on this sport. Brooklyn’s perimeter stars performed at an A1 degree, and Harden was a large number, turning the ball over and getting his shot packed every time he tried to get into the painted space.
There have been far too many makes an attempt from Harden to promote contact and draw fouls when he may have merely performed basketball. He didn’t look notably good or shoot effectively even when he tried to succeed in deep into the stepback bag, however that was frankly a secondary situation. All through this sport, Harden seemed with out a hope or a plan after spending most of his time right here to this point fully controlling video games.
You take a look at Harden’s passing quite a bit in a different way when the opposite staff has fully shut him down as a scorer. There have been moments in Thursday’s sport the place it felt like Harden was so in his head and caught within the mud that he merely wished to eliminate the ball, bored with attacking the enamel of Brooklyn’s protection. And this isn’t even a superb protection! Removed from it, in actual fact. It’s virtually exhausting to explain simply how unhealthy and detrimental to the trigger Harden was on this sport.
