By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly Staff
Like many other teams around the NBA, James Harden was just too much of a burden for the Philadelphia 76ers(17-28) on Friday night. The Harden-led Rockets(35-15) defeated the Sixers, 123-118 to snap Philadelphia's six game home winning streak.
Harden shot the lights out and captured his 14th triple double of the season, as the point guard finished the night with 51 points, 13 assists, and 13 boards. Harden's 51 points in the triple double is his second 50+ point triple-double of the season, the first player in NBA history to do that more than once in a season.
The Sixers were limited in what they could do with the ball to cut closer to the Rockets' lead, mostly because of careless turnovers. The Sixers(22) had less turnovers than the Rockets(25), however the 'Points off Turnovers' stat is what killed the Sixers in the long run. The Rockets got 35 points off of the Sixers' turnovers compared to only 24 points for Philly.
In terms of FG% and other shooting stats, the Sixers and the Rockets for the most part match up pretty close. There weren't a whole lot of stat advantages that one team or another had more than the other.
James Harden's historic night for Houston etched himself more of a case of why he should be the MVP of the NBA this season, however the Sixers were able to get where they needed to be on the scoreboard thanks to the help of Joel Embiid, playing his first game since a week ago against the Portland Trail Blazers. Embiid looked really good on Friday, and he play any less as hard as he would normally play. Jo-Jo went 11-20 from the field, went 4-6 from three, and had 32 points, seven boards, four assists, three steals, and two blocks.
JoJo takes it all the way after the stuff! pic.twitter.com/EZlVVWFIXq
— Philadelphia 76ers (@Sixers) January 28, 2017
T.J. McConnell added 13 points on eight assists, Gerald Henderson had 13 points, Timothe Luwawu-Cabbarot had 12, and so did Dario Saric.
NeNé was a key scorer for Houston, who had 21 points on the night, the second-leading Rocket scorer. Clint Capela added 17 from the bench.
The Sixers had spurts of showing themselves as the team they've competed like in the past couple days, but the real issue was the inability to guard James Harden, as the Sixers themselves lack a Harden-esque caliber player in the backcourt.
While a loss for the Sixers is never a good pill to swallow, hanging around a no-slouch Rockets team from the tough Western Conference is not too shabby. The Sixers will take what they learned from allowing a high-scoring affair from James Harden, and use it against the Chicago Bulls on Sunday night.
