In mid-November, after 76ers I won nine of their first 12 matches, I was all in.
“The 76ers are a better team without James Harden“, I wrote.
Today, while the Sixers seem somewhat lost without Joel EmbiidI watch the collapses and choke on my words.
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These Sixers are definitely not better without Harden.
The team absolutely misses his presence more than they will ever admit – especially considering how things ended. The 2018 MVP and three-time NBA scoring champion left Philadelphia after declaring in August that he would never play for Daryl Moreythe team’s president of basketball operations.
The Sixers traded Harden, PJ Tucker and Filip Petrušev to the Clippers on November 1. Harden will face his former team for the first time on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
After a rough start, he was the catalyst that allowed the Clippers to have the fourth-best record in the Western Conference (44-25) and be a championship contender.
Meanwhile, the Sixers’ championship hopes were dashed shortly after Embiid tore the meniscus in his left knee on Jan. 30 against the Golden State Warriors. The next match, Tyrese Maxey scored a career-high 51 points to lead them to a 127-124 road victory over the Utah Jazz.
But since then, the Sixers (38-32) have lost 15 of 23 games to fall to eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings with 12 games remaining.
Overall, the Sixers are 12-24 without Embiid this season. However, they were 11-5 without him last season. And Harden was the reason the Sixers were successful last season without Embiid.
The 10-time All-Star averaged 20.6 points, 9.4 assists and 6.7 rebounds in the regular season games he played without Embiid. The Sixers were looking for him to take over games when Embiid was sidelined. And he delivered.
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His most memorable performance came with Embiid sidelined with a sprained LCL in his right knee in Game 1 of the 2023 second-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics.
Harden finished with a game-high 45 points, made 17 of 30 shots and tied a season high with seven three-pointers in the 119-115 victory. He had 15 points in the fourth quarter, including the go-ahead basket with 8.4 seconds remaining.
This season, Harden is averaging 17.3 points and fifth best in the league with 8.5 assists with the Clippers. He is shooting a career-best 40.3% from three-point range.
But the Clippers looked like a team in disarray when he arrived in Los Angeles. The all-star team, which started the season 2-2, lost its first five games. Things began to change for the better in the next game, when the Clippers defeated the Rockets, 106-100, on November 17.
Harden was the hero, scoring a four-point play to give the Clippers a 104-100 lead with six seconds remaining. He finished with 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting, along with a game-high nine rebounds and seven assists.
Harden averaged 15.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists in the five losses. But the Clippers’ point differential with and without Harden spoke volumes.
Over those five games, Los Angeles was outscored by 70 points during Harden’s minutes.
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“I keep saying I didn’t have training camp or preseason,” Harden told reporters on Nov. 14, after the Clippers’ 111-108 loss to the Denver Nuggets. “So I’m learning on the job for a new team. I’m also getting into the shape and form of James Harden’s game. Tonight was a step in the right direction.
And he was right.
At the time, the Sixers were recognized as a more cohesive team without Harden. There was nothing left to watch the two-man matchup between Harden and Embiid. The Sixers were getting contributions from everyone. And that got them off to a good start.
Harden thrived as a ball-dominant guard. He’s also an inferior defender.
Under the leadership of a new coach Nick Nurse, the Sixers had a smoother offense, until they realized the Embiid-Maxey two-way matchup was difficult to stop. They also attacked the defense.
Harden’s style of play was not good for the Sixers, or so it was thought.
Everything changed once Embiid underwent knee surgery, followed by the Sixers’ roster overhaul at the trade deadline. It doesn’t help that the team is also playing without its top perimeter defenders, De’Anthony Melton (spine) and Robert Covington (left knee bone bruise).
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In the midst of everything that happened, it became clear that Maxey can’t do everything alone.
It’s not a blow to the All-Star guard, who is averaging 25.9 points in the 19 games he’s played since Embiid was sidelined. Maxey scored 30 or more points in eight of those games. And he had 27 points in Friday’s 101-94 loss to the Lakers. He scored the first eight and 11 of the Sixers’ 18 points in the fourth quarter.
It becomes apparent that he needs help, especially when teams start blitzing him to get the ball out of his hands.
These are the kinds of moments that the Sixers leaned heavily on for Harden last season. With Embiid sidelined, the future Hall of Famer’s presence kept the Sixers afloat.
And they miss it immensely.
