Sixers’ James Harden says he’s ‘extremely prepared,’ will be better than last playoffs

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April 14th, 2023 3:38 PM

The Sixers have extensive experience with their stars availability not equating to flawless health.

Still, theres no question its nice for the team to have a clean injury report ahead of its playoff opener Saturday afternoon vs. the Nets.

And in terms of the vast gray area between able to suit up and be serviceable and in peak form, James Harden sounded quite positive following Fridays practice.

Harden, who sat out four late March games with left Achilles soreness, said he feels great ahead of Round 1, Game 1.

A combination of trying to work but not overwork, and making sure its the right amount, Harden said of his lead-up to the playoffs. Im prepared. Im extremely prepared. Im going to play 40 minutes tomorrow at the minimum, so just training my body, getting the right lifts in to be able to go out there and play 40, and be efficient and effective in those 40 minutes.

On March 29, Harden said his Achilles had been bothering him for some months and he didnt expect it to completely dissipate. The 10-time All-Star hasnt dwelled on any downsides of his health since, and he presumably wouldnt have fixated Friday on doubts or concerns regardless of how he felt.

However, Harden offered up ample optimism before the 14th playoff appearance in his 14-year career. He believes hell have a better time than last postseason, when he was frustrated by a lingering left hamstring issue. After a passive, scoreless second half in the Sixers season-ending loss to the Heat, Harden had said he was finally starting to kind of feel OK again.

In his first full season as a Sixer, Harden averaged 21.0 points on 44.1/38.5/86.7 shooting splits and an NBA-best 10.7 assists.

Im excited, man, he said Friday. My energy, my pace, my aggressiveness is going to be better. Im just more comfortable and more confident in what Im supposed to be doing out there.

Danuel House Jr. noted no differences between Harden now and how he looked entering the playoffs during his Rockets days.

I think hes the same, House said. He works out the same; hes kept everything the same. The regimens the same and stuff of that nature. Its the same Playoff James thats getting ready to play.

The pre-playoffs backup five picture

Which players will Harden share the court with when Joel Embiid sits?

That question is of course not entirely settled. And though Paul Reed played well in the second half of the season next to Harden and (reasonably) thinks this matchup suits him, Rivers remains confident that P.J. Tucker can be an effective small-ball center for the Sixers in the playoffs.

I feel good about it, Rivers said. We worked on it a lot this week, so I do feel good about it. We cleared some things up with that lineup with our guys that we really didnt have time to do all season due to injuries to different guys. So I think if we do show it, were pretty organized now.

The Sixers had a minus-6.0 net rating employing Tucker-at-center units, per Cleaning the Glass, although the lineup the team used by far the most was strong in a small sample size. The five-man group of Harden, Tyrese Maxey, DeAnthony Melton, Tobias Harris and Tucker recorded a plus-11.6 net rating in 184 possessions together.

Asked about where Reed has made the most progress this season, Rivers praised aspects of the 23-year-olds development, but he absolutely did not endorse him as a rock-solid backup center in all situations.

I think weve both made progress, Rivers said. We do things with him to make it easier for him, and thats helped him a lot. When hes on the floor, youre not doing three different coverages. You just cant, and we know that. So when hes coming off the floor, its probably because we feel the one coverage were doing is not good enough for this game. And thats the bottom line.

Where hes really helped himself is in those coverages that we do with him. Hes good at it. He works at it. We drilled him every day this week at it. And I think the biggest thing with him is his teammates. Last year, the amount of frustration if you were in our practices, you couldnt even believe the other guys. And that hurts your team when theyre frustrated.

This year, when he makes a mistake, they tell him in the right way, which I had many talks about. He handles it in the right way, and were better for it. So I think its not only growth from Paul, but growth from his teammates too with Paul.

With both Reed and Tucker, a switch-everything defensive approach should generally be viable.

The Sixers also had success playing Embiid in that scheme late in their Feb. 11 win over Brooklyn. So, where does Rivers stand on it before Game 1?

Yeah, were comfortable, he said. We dont like to do that all game. And the reason we wouldnt do that all game is I dont want Joel running around chasing guards for 40 minutes. That wouldnt be very smart on our part. But we do like it. Were just not going to do it all game.