Daily News | With Joel Embiid injured again, James Harden can show the Sixers how much money he deserves
The tremors have been there all season, conspicuous little rumbles from deep beneath the surface. They have come at an interval and magnitude that suggests some level of pre-planning: too small to cause structural damage, too big for the 76ers to ignore. Christmas Day, the All-Star break, the eve of the playoffs, each of them bringing another drip or trickle of information that suggested James Harden was seriously contemplating a return to Houston ahead of his likely free agency this summer.
That’s especially true now. Even if Embiid is healthy enough to play in Game 1 in 7-10 days, his body will almost certainly be operating at some fraction of full health. Last year, that doomed the Sixers, who lost their first two semifinal games against the Miami Heat without Embiid and then lost two of the next four as he battled through the after-effects of a concussion and torn thumb ligament. They were a team that was lacking depth and the right mixture of complementary parts.
Take, for instance, the final 1:28 of the first half, when the Sixers did not score a bucket and saw the Nets enter the locker room with a seven-point lead. That stretch included a Sixers possession where Harden was stuffed from behind by the Nets’ Nic Claxton and then missed a 13-foot jumper after the Sixers came up with the offensive rebound. Those were two of the nine shots he missed inside the paint. That included misses on 8-of-9 shots around the rim.
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