The Sixers have been successful since trading for James Harden last month, but he’s still trying to find the right balance between scoring and setting up teammates, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Harden has averaged 13.7 shots per game since coming to Philadelphia, which would be his lowest total in a decade.
“You have another guy [Joel Embiid] right now who’s leading the league in scoring on my team,” Harden said after Friday’s win over the Mavericks. “Night-in and night-out, he’s used to, he’s confident of getting buckets.”
Coach Doc Rivers said earlier this week that he would like to see Harden shoot more frequently, and Embiid expressed the same sentiment Friday, saying the former MVP needs to be more aggressive heading into the playoffs. The two players spread out the scoring duties against Dallas, with Embiid contributing 21 of his 32 points in the first half and Harden scoring 11 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter.
“I’m just trying to find a balance like I talked about before, when to be a playmaker,” Harden said. “I think tonight especially in that fourth quarter, me attacking, attacking, attacking, the playmaking ability is going to come because we got lobs, we got threes. So that’s going to come with my aggressiveness. You just got to read the game. And tonight, I felt I read the game well.”
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Rivers indicated that he might consider resting some of his players, particularly with a tough back-to-back looming Sunday and Monday against the Raptors and Heat, per Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer. That wraps up a stretch of six games in nine days with two back-to-backs and a pair of one-game road trips. “You’d rather have this at the beginning of the year,” Rivers said. “But every team, at some point, goes through a stretch like this.”
- A crucial mistake in Friday’s loss to the Lakers should be a learning experience for Raptors rookie Scottie Barnes, states Doug Smith of The Toronto Star. Although Barnes had a great game with 31 points and 17 rebounds, his late inbounds pass was intercepted by Russell Westbrook, who hit a three-pointer to send the game to overtime. “It wasn’t just him,” Fred VanVleet said. “He really gave us a chance to be in the game, dominated both ends of the floor, had a couple unfortunate plays but … I’ve certainly had my share of them (and) it sucks in the moment but all you can do for those times is grow and get better at it, and Scottie will do that.”
- Celtics guard Aaron Nesmith has been upgraded to questionable for Sunday’s game, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Nesmith has missed the past two weeks with a sprained right ankle.