March 28, 2024
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
James Harden did not receive a warm reception in his return to Philadelphia Wednesday night.
After completing a 1-3 road trip across the country on Monday, the Sixers returned home for one game: a Wednesday night matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers, who they soundly defeated in LA on Sunday afternoon. This was James Harden's first game back in Philadelphia since being traded early on this season, and he did not receive a wam ovation. Distractions aside, the Sixers controlled most of the game before collapsing in heartbreaking fashion in the fourth quarter. They fell to the Clippers in a tight one, 108-107. Here is what stood out from the Sixers' lone home game before they return to the road:
The Sixers' impressive victory over the Clippers over the weekend was headlined by standout offensive showings from Tyrese Maxey, Tobias Harris and Cam Payne. But the most important factor was their defense, which held the Clippers to 107 points. They were able to do this because they limited all three members of LA's star trio -- Harden, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George -- to 50 combined points on a 19-44 shooting line.
The Sixers were locked in on defense from the moment this game tipped off, and held the Clippers' star-laden offense to just 18 points in the first quarter. The key: they understood that limiting players of that caliber is not a task that can be done by any one individual. Everybody needs to be able to help, rotate, switch and work in concert with one another. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse has repeatedly expressed loads of enthusiasm about the team's improved defense, even as its offense has struggled, and it is not hard to see why.
In the first few weeks after entering the rotation following Joel Embiid's meniscus injury, Bamba's play on both ends was extremely poor: he showed little offensive utility as a shooter or rim-running lob threat, was dominated on the glass and failed to make any sort of consistent impact on the defensive end.
Bamba is far from a perfect player, but over the last couple of weeks he has started to limit his mistakes, culminating in his first double-double as a Sixer in this one. The difference between being competent enough to log half-decent minutes and being actively harmful to one's team's chances of winning is significant, as Sixers fans have seen demonstrated by their backup centers for many years now.
Bamba figures to be out of the rotation whenever Embiid returns too the floor, and rightfully so: he has not been able to consistently demonstrate that he has the ability to be a reliable part of any team's center rotation; his ideal role is as a use-in-case-of-emergency option. And, certainly, this situation has qualified as an emergency.
Over the last few seasons, Harris has improved from an average defensive player -- if that -- to someone who is at least capable of taking on a select amount of premium assignments. He did a solid job defending LeBron James last week, and in this one he spent nearly every second of his playing time defending Kawhi Leonard. The Sixers' strong defensive performance was indeed a team effort, but Harris deserves a lot of props for stepping up his defensive game recently, especially amid a stretch in which the is struggling mightily on the offensive end. Many players in that situation would let it negatively impact their performance in other departments, but Harris is staying the course.
Nurse used 10 players as rotation fixtures on Monday night in Sacramento, but in this one he trimmed that down to nine in the first half before going even further down to eight players in the second half. In the first half, KJ Martin was the odd man out. Martin gave the Sixers some good minutes during the road trip, but struggled mightily with foul trouble against the Kings.
Payne, meanwhile, had his first dud in a while in the game in Sacramento after also having a mostly impressive trip. He was part of the rotation in the first half, but only logged about three minutes before returning to the bench, and then was left out of the rotation in the second half. Given Payne's consistency over the last few weeks, this seems a bit harsh, but in a close game against a team with three different perimeter scoring aficionados, it makes sense to limit the minutes of someone who can be a liability on the defensive end of the floor.
Maxey and Harden were known to have a great relationship while they were teammates, and the former starting backcourt mates were matched up with each other quite often in this one. Maxey spent the entire second half as the primary defender on Harden, and while Harden was never on his former protege by design, the Sixers forced him to switch onto Maxey several times. Just about each time, Maxey would immediately call for an isolation and take Harden one-on-one, a handful of times blowing by the much slower, older guard.
Just when it looked like the Sixers were going to nab a win and sweep the season series against Harden and the Clippers, Kawhi Leonard -- who struggled for the first 45 minutes of the game -- converted two ridiculous and-one finishes at the rim after multiple Sixers miscues let the Clippers back in.
In the game's final seconds, Kelly Oubre Jr. drove towards the rim against Leonard and had his shot pinned against the backboard and rim. A wedgie!
That initiated a jump ball, which the Sixers won. Once again, it was Oubre going downhill. But this time, he passed up on a prime chance to take an open jumper or floater. He went towards the rim and failed to finish against George. There was a whole lot of contact but the whistles remained silent. Oubre and Nurse both unloaded on the officials after the game had been deemed over, and official Kevin Scott admitted after the game that a foul should have been called on George.
The bottom line, however, is this: the referees did not cost the Sixers this game. The Sixers did that all on their own.
