James Harden believes the lingering effects of last year’s hamstring injury are gone and he’s ready to play at an MVP level again, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Harden was dominant Friday in the Nets‘ win over the Spurs, putting up 37 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds along with a highlight dunk that should calm any fears about his explosiveness.
Brooklyn will need those type of performances to remain in contention for the top spot in the East with Kevin Durant likely sidelined until after the All-Star break with a sprained left knee and Kyrie Irving limited to road games because of New York City’s vaccine requirement. Harden feels ready to lead the team while it’s short-handed.
“Yeah, I’m definitely back,” he said. “It’s just throughout the course of the year we had so much going on (with) our team. A lot of injuries and whatnot, and obviously the situation with Kyrie, so it’s really difficult to get a rhythm like we all want to. But we just got to continue to fight, continue to take one game at a time and push through it. Eventually this thing is going to come together where we’re all together and we all make a really, really huge run at this thing.”
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Nets have found their most effective center combination with rookie Day’Ron Sharpe starting and LaMarcus Aldridge as his primary backup, Lewis notes in a separate story. “I thought (Sharpe) did some great things,” coach Steve Nash said Friday, “got 10 rebounds and was a good screener-and-roller. Looked a little bit tired at times and then (Aldridge) was super-solid making shots and a big night for him coming back.”
- Sixers coach Doc Rivers snapped at a reporter who questioned his coaching tactics after the team let a 24-point lead get away in Friday’s loss to the Clippers, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. When asked how much his coaching decisions contributed to the defeat, Rivers responded, “Would you ask (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) that question? No you wouldn’t. So don’t ask me that question. I’ve earned that.”
- The Celtics need to abandon their lineup that has Robert Williams and Al Horford playing together, argues Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston. Boston had a minus-31 rating in the 15 minutes that Williams and Horford shared the court in Friday’s loss to Portland.
Pop has how many rings compared to you Doc? That’s how he earned that.
76ers led by 24 points and then managed to lose the game to Clippers
Embiid and Harris played great
The problem is they don’t have the best 6th man in the nba
Doc has like 6 of the top 10 biggest blown leads to lose playoff games in modern NBA history. I think he earned the question!
Doc is acting sensitive af to a basic question
Top 3 salary
1 Pop
2 Kerr, Rivers
Ben Simmons did not play against Clippers last night
The sign of a mediocre head coach.
Doc got lucky with a hall-of-fame trio. Nothing more. He’s a career coach for sure, but not dynamic or creative in the slightest.
They preach accountability but don’t want to show any. How is this different from Simmons, Doc should be leading by example not by not taking responsibility.
Reporter missed out in responding … Well Doc, you’ve a record of losing 3 playoff series with your team leading 3-1 and 3 other series when up 3-2, damn right, you’ve earned the privilege to answer on you coaching tactics.
Without dealing Ben Simmons next 18 days,
76ers will be knocked out by one of the top 4 teams in the first round
Nets
Bulls
Heat
Bucks
76ers starters will need to beat Bucks by a lot.
Bucks have much better bench.
If the 76ers have a full healthy roster- .
Maxey, Curry, Thybulle, Harris, Embiid, Milton,Korkmaz,Green,Niang, Drummond,
Charlie Brown Jr.Springer, I.Joe,P.Reed, C. Bassey
They will beat CHI, BRK, probably MIA, and maybe even MIL. Noone can stop Joel, except Joel, and God.
Yes, God beat Joel.. ATL in 2021 .. BOS in 2020 … TOR in 2019 … BOS in 2018 … LOL!!!!!
Rivers is the problem in Philly that not enough people talk about. He’s overrated on the court and an embarrassment off of it. Anything short of an ECF appearance should result in him being shown the door.
It is talked about a lot by Sixers fans. If you listen to the Ricky pod it’s addressed a lot. For some reason Doc though is a national basketball media darling so they never really go hard on him. Kind of like how ESPN writers repeatedly acted as if Dave Griffin would turn around the Pelicans and treat him with kids gloves with any criticism.
I’ve been saying this for awhile now, but Morey, Doc, and Ben all deserve each other in the worst way.
Doc is an average coach at best.
Doc may not be the coach he thinks he is but Philly fans need to take a step back. Wasn’t too long ago that the “Brett Brown is the problem” talk was happening every week
Agreed. But no good coach makes a statement like that unless he feels that he is failing.
Rivers cannot fix Philly’s problems but he also seems defensive in response to a legitimate question. A good, confident coach responds with humility, not defensiveness, which is modeling what you want from players.
And the best coaches tend to be very candid when they think their performance wasn’t up to par. That level of introspection is what helps to set them apart.
Doc is only sensitive because it’s the Clippers
The first thing that the Celtics need to abandon is the coach! Get a point guard and a coach that knows how to coach!
The whole point of interviews for a HC must be to discuss the tactics that you used in the game, if you can’t do that or can’t be bothered, please don’t be a coach… otherwise what on earth is he gonna talk about, the weather???