PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers needed a win on Sunday afternoon. They could not go back to TD Garden trailing the Boston Celtics 3-1 and they needed their main players to get going on the offensive end.
That means James Harden had to show up. He was an absolute no-show in Games 2 and 3 as he combined to shoot 5-for-28 from the floor. He shot just 3-for-14 in the Game 3 loss to the Celtics and he needed to bounce back.
He did so in a huge way in Game 4 as he poured in 42 points on 16-for-23 shooting and he was 6-for-9 from deep in a 116-115 overtime win to tie the series up 2-2.
It was a stark difference from the Game 3 performance for Harden.
“Watching film and seeing what I can correct,” Harden said of the difference. “Guys set some really good screens, the spacing was—for the most part—really, really good. It’s a pretty simple game.”
To wrap up his afternoon, Harden drilled the go-ahead triple with 19 seconds left in overtime after Boston’s Jayson Tatum had made a 3 to give the Celtics the lead. Joel Embiid was double teamed and he found Harden wide-open in the corner for the 3 and he just handled his business.
“We threw it into Joel, it was supposed to be a dribble hand-off where he dribble hand-off with me, but Jaylen Brown was denying me and I didn’t wanna fight and fight it and let the clock run down so I just gave Joel space to do what he did,” Harden explained. “He got so far in the paint that Jaylen Brown went to go help. Jo made an unbelievable pass and catch-and-shoot.”
This was Harden’s signature Sixers moment. Sure, one can point to Game 1 of this series on the road, but this was the one Philadelphia needed. If they lost this game, then one might as well stick a fork in the Sixers.
Instead, The Beard came to the rescue.
“I just wanna win,” said Harden. “Quite frankly, today (Sunday) was do-or-die for us. We found a way to win and that’s all that matters in the postseason so watch film, get better, and be ready and see some things that we can get better at and be ready to go for Game 5.”
Story continues
Game 5 is back at the TD Garden on Tuesday where the Sixers…
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