James Harden pulled a Ben Simmons during Game 3 loss
Feb 25, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden (1) brings the ball up court against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first quarter at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports
James Harden took a page out of the Ben Simmons playbook for Game 3 on Friday night, and that’s not a good thing.
Harden was the biggest reason why the Philadelphia 76ers won Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series against the Boston Celtics on Monday. The 33-year-old guard shot 17/30 and carried his team to victory by scoring 45 points. But after the big Game 1, Harden completely tanked.
Harden went 2-for-14 shooting in a Game 2 blowout loss to the Celtics. In Game 3 at home on Friday, it was more of the same.
Harden shot just 3-for-14 and scored 16 points, though he had 11 assists. He was like Simmons in the sense that he was timid and seemed to avoid shooting the ball despite having good looks.
Here was one opportunity he had in the third quarter that he passed up, leaving ESPN’s announcers stunned:
Doris Burke and Mark Jones can't believe how bad James Harden looks in Game 3. 🏀 pic.twitter.com/6zGKwf38m5
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 6, 2023
And this was in the fourth quarter:
— highlight hell (@HoopyHoops) May 6, 2023
ESPN’s Michael Wilbon roasted Harden at halftime too, apparently forgetting about some of the poor playoff stretches Harden went through in Houston.
"I don't think I've ever seen James Harden look this bad in a playoff game… He's like afraid to take shots."
Michael Wilbon sounded OFF on Harden's first half performance in Game 3 of Sixers-Celtics 😳pic.twitter.com/44cpebSckx https://t.co/xcTXWddp55
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 6, 2023
That was the exact type of behavior Simmons exhibited when he had lost all confidence at the end of his Sixers tenure and avoided taking shots.
There is something that resulted in a change in mentality for Harden. In Game 1, Joel Embiid wasn’t playing, so Harden decided he would need to act as a scorer and be the hero. But when Embiid played, Harden went into more of a facilitator role, which seemed to mess with his confidence and lead him to pass up shots.
The transition from playing with Embiid and without Embiid seems to be a very difficult one for Harden to make. His Sixers lost Game 3 114-102 to fall behind 2-1 in the series.