He got the ball where he wanted it to go. He had a really efficient night and I thought he really controlled the offense too. When he needed to step back and make a 3, he did. "I thought when he needed to go in there and knock people over, he did. I thought he controlled the game," Toronto coach Nick Nurse said of Harden. They have a stable of long, athletic guys who deploy something of an organized chaos system, frantic and improvisational enough to get their opponents off balance and sped up, and the next thing you know passes are being tipped or stolen and the Raptors are racing the other way. This is what they do: turn you over and score in transition, where they put up 22.5 points per game in the regular season, the fifth-highest mark in the league. The Raptors led the league in defensive turnover rate this season. Harden finished just two of his 10 shots inside the arc, but here's the number that really matters: One turnover. Encouragingly, he made four of his seven 3-pointers he is increasingly dependent on his step-back 3s going down as he no longer seems like the guy who is going to get to the rim or the free-throw line at will. Harden scored 22 points of his own, and when he has a running start in early offense he still looks plenty explosive to the rim and through contact it's the stationary dribbling exhibitions that no longer lead to consistent blow-bys. Tyrese Maxey's 38 points and Tobias Harris' 26 won the box score, but who, whether directly or indirectly got them a lot of those looks? Harden is still defended like a superstar. But he got feet in the paint, he won angles, and his vision and ability to deliver pinpoint dimes off the dribble, regardless of his diminished separation, hasn't faded one bit. In the Sixers' blowout Game 1 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Saturday, Harden dished out 14 assists and created enough open shots for his teammates for that number to have exceeded 20.ĭid he blow past people all the way to the rim? No. He's an all-time great passer, and I don't say that lightly. Perhaps that's true.īut there's always been more to Harden's game than scoring. Many would argue Harden has already tipped, that he's lost his burst and is no longer a top-tier scorer.
Once you go over that edge, it can be a fast fall. James Harden is going into his first postseason with the Philadelphia 76ers at, or at least near, the edge of the superstar cliff.
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