James Harden had to be present today for his team, but unfortunately, instead, he reinforced perceptions about himself that he should have buried long back. He brought back that player who fans say, ‘does not perform well in the playoffs at all’.

His lack of “resume”, so to say, at this stage, acts as a thorn in his otherwise illustrious career. Hence, his performance today was not surprising to many, but still, he was expected to lead his team.

Without Joel Embiid though, Harden and others were absolutely flaccid. The Heat suffocated the life out of Philadelphia. On Inside the NBA, legends, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal did not spare any words for Harden.

Inside the NBA on James Harden

Shaq said, “He needs to be more of a scorer. I know he’s been the facilitator for the last two years but besides Tobias and Maxey, there’s not a lot of people to facilitate to. You can make a real play. You can still get over 20. Guys think he should average 30. He should average 25 to 27 points. His approach needs to definitely change. He needs to be aggressive…You know the playoffs slogan: You win or go home. He has to win now because time is running out for him.”

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Chuck mentioned that he was disappointed because they had the game right there at halftime. They were up and then Harden only scored four points in the second half. To him, he played a good first half, but for some reason, he only scored four points in the second half.

He said that Harden has to get more than four shots; with Embiid not out there, he should be shooting 25 times. He didn’t think they were going to win the game but it was a one-point game at halftime and thought Harden should have been super aggressive.

Harden’s performance for the 76ers

Harden scored 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting with nine rebounds, five assists, and five turnovers. It had already been expected that the Sixers would face an uphill battle against the top-seeded Heat, but Philadelphia has no chance in the series if Harden continues to play like this.

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Regardless of his history of postseason woes, Harden has not displayed the dominance we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from him at all this season, and he can no longer be counted on as a consistent lead option.

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Embiid has to come back to ensure that the 76ers win this series against the Heat. Otherwise, this will be a long fortnight for the 76ers.