Harden energizes 76ers before he even arrives

Press

By The Associated

James Harden already made his first Philly highlight reel.

The 76ers gave a tease of Harden’s impending arrival with a flipbook-style video of his career that ended with a shot of The Beard superimposed in a No. 1 jersey. Sixers fans gave the clip a roaring standing ovation. The 76ers can’t wait for the real deal to get to town.

Joel Embiid had 25 points, 19 rebounds and 5 blocked shots, and the 76ers won as they wait on Harden, 100-87 over the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night.

“Everybody’s going to have extreme expectations,” 76ers forward Tobias Harris said. “I think this thing will really work. I think there’s something really special that we could do.” Harden, who has a hamstring injury, is expected to travel to the area this weekend and get evaluated by the team’s medical sta He won’t play today against Cleveland. The means the earliest Harden could play for the 76ers is at home Tuesday against Boston. The 76ers also play Thursday at NBA champion Milwaukee before the All-Star break.

Sixers fans rushed the team stores when doors opened to get the jump on Harden jerseys. Yup, some die-hards wore a Harden jersey before the threetime NBA scoring champ

Kurtenbach

FROM PAGE 1 of that — 17. could in Philly. Harden was acquired from the Brooklyn Nets at Thursday’s trade deadline for 2016 No. 1 pick and three-time All-Star Ben Simmons. Simmons never played a game this season following an offseason trade demand. The Sixers got the second star they craved to pair with Embiid as they chase their first NBA championship since 1983.

CELTICS 108, NUGGETS 102» Jayson Tatum had 24 points, Marcus Smart added 22 points, 5 steals and 2 crucial free throws, and the Celtics held on in Boston for their seventh straight victory. Robert Williams added 15 points and 16 rebounds to help Boston extend its longest winning streak of the season. Derrick White had 15 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists in his debut with Celtics after being acquired from San Antonio in a trade-deadline deal.

Boston spoiled another big night for Nikola Jokic, who had his 71st career triple-double with 23 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists.

Aaron Gordon finished with 17 points.

CAVALIERS 120, PACERS 113» Caris LeVert scored 22 points and had five assists in his return to Indiana, and Cleveland’s defense put together a strong fourth quarter to rally for a win. The Cavaliers stayed within striking distance of the Eastern Conference’s top seed by winning their

It’s hard for the Warriors to control the game when they can’t speed it up. Allowing o ensive rebounds and free throws guarantee the game is slow.

Now, I won’t pretend that the Warriors’ back-to-back losses mean much in the grand scheme of things. No sir. The Warriors won’t play a meaningful game against the Knicks all season. The Dubs might meet the Jazz in the playo s, but in a seven-game series, I’ll bet on Golden State’s ability to pull bigs out of the paint, forcing them to play on the perimeter, where they will be barbecued chicken. Utah is a flawed team.

But that’s not to say that these last two contests haven’t been informative.

The Warriors look like a team that needs Draymond Green back in the fold sooner rather than later. Would the Dubs be getting punked like this if Green was on the floor?

No way.

But Green might not be able to mitigate it all.

Thursday afternoon was the NBA’s trade deadline. Now that the massive moves have been made around the league, teams naturally start looking toward the playo s.

The big questions start to be asked: Who are our best players?

What are our best rotations? How do we match up against our top rivals?

Now, the Warriors are still one of the NBA’s title favorites. They might even be the favorite.

But the other teams in that class — the Suns, the Bucks, and perhaps now the Philadelphia 76ers — share a common trait:

They have an elite big man.

The Warriors were unable to handle Whiteside, Mitchell Robinson, and Julius Randle. Those are second-tier bigs at best, run-of-themill falls if we’re being honest.

What will Giannis Antetokounmpo or Joel Embiid do to this team — even with Green back in the fold?

Will the Warriors even be able to reach the NBA Finals? They’ll likely have to go through the Suns’ DeAndre Ayton first.

I understand, fully, why the Warriors didn’t make a trade before Thursday’s deadline. Their roster wasn’t built for tinkering and it’s not like the Dubs are some scrub team that needs to find another level to make something of this season.

But I’m not sure the return of Green and 7-foot sophomore James Wiseman is going to provide the kind of stoutness the Warriors appear to need to get past the league’s best big guns. There is a solution if the Warriors want it: The buyout market should provide options for depth bigs.

Nemja Beliica played his first game in two weeks Thursday and fifth straight overall. They also ended a three-game losing streak at Indianapolis that dated to December 2018. Jarrett Allen had 22 points and 14 rebounds, while Kevin Love scored his 7,000th career point since joining Cleveland and finished with 14. The played without All-Star guard Darius Garland, who repored a sore back. He averages 19.9 points and 8.1 assists.

HORNETS 141, PISTONS 119»

LaMelo Ball had 31 points and 12 assists, Terry Rozier added a triple-double and visiting Charlotte ended a six-game losing streak. Detroit has lost seven in a row and 11 of 12. Rozier finished with 25 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds. Miles Bridges had 25 points for the Hornets, who haven’t won since beating the Lakers on Jan. 28.

SPURS 136, HAWKS 121» Dejounte Murray tied his career highs with 32 points and 15 assists to go with 10 rebounds for his 11th tripledouble this season, Keldon Johnson scored 26 points and San Antonio cruised in Atlanta. The Spurs shot 24% on 33 3-point attempts in Wednesday’s loss at Cleveland, but they got o to a sizzling start. The were 8 for 9 to take a 4329 lead at the end of the first quarter. San Antonio tied a season high with 18 3-pointers. BULLS 134, TIMBERWOLVES 122» DeMar DeRozan scored 35 points to lead host Chicago.

“Their willingness to block shots or willingness to come back in the zone and defend. Their willingness to play a hard (penalty kill) and protect the goaltender,” Will said.

“Those are buy-ins, and you don’t have buy-ins unless the team cares about each other and unless they respect and listen to what the coaches put out there. So I’m very pleased with what they’ve done this year.”

The Montreal Canadiens fired coach Dominique Ducharme on Wednesday after a dreadful first half of the season and named Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Martin St. Louis as interim coach. On Thursday, Edmonton fired Dave Tippett and replaced him with former Sharks assistant Jay Woodcroft, who was coaching the Oilers’ AHL team.

The Sharks entered Friday with the sixth-best points percentage (.522) in the Pacific Division, worse than Edmonton’s .557, and are seven points out of a Western Conference playo spot. Still, their 22 wins already eclipses their win total from 56 games last season.

No coach in Sharks history has been brought back for a third full season after missing the playo s in the previous two, although the team entered what it called a “reset” after it advanced to the Western Conference final in 2019, and expectations were modest.

Will said like everyone else in hockey operations, Boughner will be evaluated between now and the end of the season.

“We’re all evaluated every day on what we do,” Will said. “And a lot of that is, did we instill a competitive team this year? Are we integrating young players, are we drafting and developing young players, and everything else? Then at the end of the day, have we taken it far enough to have that level of success that we expect and that we’d like?”

WILL ON TRADE DEADLINE fornia counterparts a combined seven times and have 20 total games left against division opponents, games critical to San Jose’s slim playo chances.

» Will said the Sharks’ approach to the March 21 trade deadline will depend on how the team performs over the next few weeks.

The Sharks, with 48 points, are seven points back of both Los Angeles and Anaheim, two teams they’ll likely have to pass to make the postseason. The Kings are in third place in the Pacific Division and the Ducks occupy the second wild-card spot in Western Conference.

“You assess as it goes along,” Will said. “Where are we sitting in two weeks, where are we sitting in three weeks. There are about five weeks until the deadline, so it gives us some time to see what we’re doing.

“If we hang around, if we’re in that playo spot or in that playo race, then we build and we adjust accordingly. If we’re not, then we adjust accordingly.”

WILL ON EKLUND, BORDELEAU » Will indicated that William Eklund will not be playing in San Jose this season but that the door may be open for Thomas Bordeleau to turn professional and join the Sharks if he so chooses. Eklund and Bordeleau, both forwards, are considered the Sharks’ top two prospects. Will said there isn’t “a big push” to get Eklund, 19, back to San Jose once his season with Djurgarden ends in late March or early April. Eklund could also be called up to the Swedish national team for the IIHF World Championship in May.

Bordeleau, 20, a sophomore at Michigan, could decide to turn pro after the Wolverines’ season ends, potentially as late as the second week of April after the completion of the Frozen Four. Michigan is ranked fourth nationally in Division I. Bordeleau, whose name has been discussed in recent Sharks operations meetings, has 24 points in 24 games this season. The Sharks could tempt Bordeleau to turn pro by o ering him a chance to play in the NHL this season, thereby burning a year of his entry-level contract.

“Quite honestly, it’s a huge discussion point and I think he would be capable of coming out and going into pro,” Will said. “It’d be a matter of whether he wants to or not.”

HRABIK’S STATUS » Barracuda forward Krystof Hrabik, suspended 30 games by the AHL on Jan. 21 for a racist gesture directed toward Boko Imama of the Tucson Roadrunners, can apply for reinstatement on March 12. But Will, also the GM of the Barracuda, indicated that Hrabik’s time in the organization might be over.

“He is suspended for a very serious o ense,” Will said. “I can’t say if he’s going to be welcomed back into this organization at the end of that.” ing bigger — today’s game against Anthony Davis and the Lakers is a great test; next Wednesday’s game against Nicola Jokic and the Nuggets an even better one — something will have to be done.

There are too many impressive big men along the road to a championship to ignore.

And while an immediate response seems implausible and also rash, the Warriors’ unimpressive play in the paint can’t be ignored after these last two games.

I asked for 20-plus minutes of Jonathan Kumigna every night until the All-Star break and Kerr delivered — and then some — on Thursday.

Kuminga delivered as well. He played 36 minutes, had 17 points, was the Warriors’ best foul-drawer, and was a plus-8 in the contest.

The Congolese 19-year-old has looked like a reliable pro the last five games. It’s to the point where if you were to ask a casual fan how old No. 00 was, there’s no way they would guess 19.

The Sharks still have to play their Southern Cali -

Around The Nhl

Hrabik has served 10 games of the suspension. If he is not reinstated early, and the Barracuda’s schedule remains the same, he will be eligible to return on April 3.