James Harden cost his Philadelphia 76ers with a boneheaded move on Saturday.
Harden’s 76ers were losing 99-84 to the Denver Nuggets at home on Saturday. Joel Embiid had the ball and slipped, leading the ball to go out of bounds.
After the turnover, Harden for some reason left the court and went to sit down on Philly’s bench. That left the Sixers with four players on defense.
When a coach on the bench alerted Harden, he tried to run onto the court mid-play.
Harden tried for the steal from the bench, but the Sixers got called for a tech for only having four players on the court 😅 pic.twitter.com/ed71csRPoW
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 28, 2023
Philly was called for a technical foul for only having four players on the court.
The technical gave Denver a free throw attempt, which they missed, plus the ball.
What led to the mistake by Harden? Matisse Thybulle was at the scorer’s table ready to check in. Perhaps Harden thought Thybulle was able to check in after Embiid’s turnover, which is why he went to the bench.
Harden didn’t have his head in the game on that one.
What’s amazing is that despite this and a second quarter incident between teammates, Philly still won 126-119. It helps when Embiid scores 47 points and 18 rebounds.
