James Harden made a savvy and sensible play Friday night to give Joel Embiid space at the tail end of another MVP-level performance.
Much like with Harden during his run of three straight scoring titles from the 2017-18 through ’19-20 seasons, anything resembling a 1-on-1 situation looks very favorable for Embiid. “Something that he works on every day,” Harden said of Embiid’s game-winner. “That’s why he’s the MVP of the league.”
Since they fell to 12-12 on Dec. 5 with a loss to the Rockets in double overtime, the Sixers’s 74.4 winning percentage isand their offensive rating is No. 2 behind the Kings. It’s difficult to believe that anyone during that stretch has been decisively better than Embiid, a back-to-back MVP runner-up.
Embiid perhaps slid a point about this year’s MVP race into an answer about the Sixers’ second-half defense. “I think a couple of plays down the stretch we went to one through five, just switching everything,” he said. “The game plan was really to trap the whole game, and they hurt us a lot with that. Once we started going one through five … I think I’m a pretty good defender — and defense matters. So I thought as a team, we did a good job.”
Embiid is indeed an elite defensive player. And though the Sixers’ team defense has often looked porous — Portland scored 71 first-half points, including 19 apiece for Anfernee Simons and Jerami Grant — they’ve regularly accessed a much higher level late in games.
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