The Philadelphia 76ers ended last week in Phoenix on a high note. As they had a three-straight win with victories over the Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, the Sixers ended their West Coast road trip with a matchup against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night.
For most of the matchup, the Sixers were in control. When the time of crisis came, however, Sun took the wheel. Eventually, a tight and competitive matchup turned into a double-digit victory for the Suns, which continued to heat up and issue the Sixers their first loss in a week.
After two nights, the Sixers returned to South Philly and faced their Eastern Conference rival, the Milwaukee Bucks, for the third time this year.
Before the All-Star break, the Sixers toured Milwaukee without James Harden on the floor. Joel Embiid and his squad managed to take down the Bucks with a 123-120 victory. On Tuesday, when the Sixers welcomed the Bucks to City, they attempted to return to the winners' column against the defending champions.
As usual, Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks issued a problematic matchup to the Sixers. To win Tuesday's 76ers, they needed the stars to come out and play a perfect game. And he needed to excel from start to finish to avoid falling into the same hole as Sunday's game against the NBA Finals runner-up.
For eight straight games, James Harden struggled off the ground. Against the Clippers last Friday, Harden looked like he was finally starting to get back on track as he scored a team-high 29 points in Philadelphia's blowout win over the Clippers.
But then Harden did poorly after last Friday's game against Phoenix on Sunday. In nearly 40 minutes of action, Harden made only a 2-11 shot from the ground. He finished the matchup with 14 points, and eight of his points came from Charity Stripe.
While Harden has been colder than hot lately, a productive discussion with Doc Rivers ahead of Tuesday's game prompted Harden to play the offensive against the Bucks as he got back on track.
In the first quarter, Doc Rivers couldn't get Harden off the floor. As he checked-in for the entire quarter, Harden went 4-5 off the field and 3-4 from the free-throw line, for a total of 12 points.
By the end of the first half, Harden had scored 16 points in 18 minutes. Despite his recent struggles off the field, the star guard was efficient off the field on Tuesday morning as he dropped five of his seven shots from the field and hit his 50-cent three.
Harden put his foot on the gas in the second half. He played the full third quarter, starting and hitting three field goals and six free throws. In a difficult quarter for the Sixers, Harden kept them alive as he scored 13 points from his 28 third quarters.
Harden's fourth quarter was not his fastest as he collected just three points in six minutes. Overall, his performance was impressive as he scored a team-high 32 points in 37 minutes. While Harden has to show some consistency, his Tuesday night performance was inspiring for Philly.
Joel Embiid looked rough to start Tuesday's game. Generally, Harden and Embiid are a dynamic duo and are on the same page in terms of scoring. For Embiid, however, his shot was not falling quickly.
In his first ten minutes on the floor, Embiid missed all but one of his six shots. He wrapped up the first quarter with only two of Philadelphia's 24 points.
For most of the minutes of his second quarter, Embiid continued to struggle. But a little before the half, the All-Star Big Man started to reverse his performance. And just like that, Embiid was back as he collected 11 points in nine minutes as the Sixers rallied to 37 points before halftime.
After going 4-11 in just his first 19 minutes on the floor, Embiid was almost right on offense in the third quarter. He drilled all four of his shots from the ground, but missed the lone free throw. Embiid scored eight points in nine minutes as the Bucks and Sixers remained neck and neck throughout the third quarter.
When the fourth quarter rolled, Embiid made some tough shots for his team. As he was allowed to check-in earlier than usual, Embiid was a man on a mission as he killed both of his attempts. In less than ten minutes, Embiid collected eight points and six rebounds. While he nearly propelled the Sixers to victory, Embiid made a significant trade down the stretch. Furthermore, he failed to make a game-tying shot, which turned into a controversial call.
Joel Embiid came down with a crucial rebound after missing a 25-foot three-point jump shot from James Harden. After a second to go into the game, Embiid attempted a shot from point blank range, which was swat by Antetokounmpo and flew out of bounds.
However, the referee did not initially consider it a block. Instead, the Sixers were lucky to hear that Antetokounmpo's tough defensive game was a goal scorer. So the game was tied at 118.
Considering this to be so close, the referee decided to review the play. After a few minutes, the call was turned down. And just like that, the Sixers saw their two points erased and instead of getting the ball back to their ends with a second, the Sixers and Bucks were forced to tip-off.
While Embiid won the tip-off and took the ball back into possession of James Harden, the ten-time All-Star didn't have nearly enough time to launch a half-court shot. Therefore, the Sixers wrapped up Tuesday's game with a 118-116 loss to the defending champions.