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Sixers, and Philadelphia, are riding the James Harden roller coaster vs. Celtics - The Athletic

PHILADELPHIA – James Harden was en route to the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday afternoon when coach Doc Rivers texted him with a song called, “Do You Know My Name?”

It’s a gospel song, perhaps one that isn’t Harden’s normal game-day playlist, but he decided to put it on. Rivers had never texted Harden a song before, so this was a surprise.

“So, I just told my homies, ‘Let’s play the song,’ ” Harden said. “It’s a seven-minute song, but I let the whole song play. And I’m like, ‘Alright there’s gotta be some kind of good juju in this song, or however he’s feeling, I want to feel like that.’ I guess it worked.”

Oh, it worked all right. Sitting next to Harden when he relayed the story, P.J. Tucker told his longtime teammate, “You better play it again.”

Rivers’ message to Harden after two straight clunkers, a bit low on subtlety, was to get back to being James Harden. He did just that, delivering his second masterpiece of the series in a do-or-die game.

The Philadelphia 76ers are going back to Boston tied at 2-2 in their Eastern Conference semifinal series after a thrilling 116-115 overtime victory in South Philadelphia on Sunday. Game 5 is at 7:30 p.m. (ET) Tuesday night.

Harden’s stat line on Sunday was remarkable: 42 points on 16-of-23 shooting from the field, nine assists to just one turnover, eight rebounds and four steals. After putting together his best postseason performance of an all-time, 14-year NBA career in Game 1, Harden waited just six days to top it.

And that he sandwiched those two dominant performances around two complete no-show efforts — Harden shot an unfathomable 5 of 28 from the field in Games 2 and 3 — highlights that there may be no current NBA player with more variability on a game-to-game basis. The Sixers, and Philadelphia, are riding the Harden roller coaster.

“I mean, I’m always motivated and fired up,” Harden said. “It’s just things didn’t work out how I would like it to, but it’s a part of it. But I’m a competitor. I always want to win, I always want to be aggressive.”

For most of Game 4, the Sixers were the superior team. They came out with more energy and an aggressive mindset on the defensive end. Nobody embodied that more than 6-foot-2 Tyrese Maxey, who had two steals, a block and a career-high six rebounds in the first quarter.

The offense was executed to perfection through three quarters. Their spacing, after a Saturday film session that Rivers and Maxey both said involved some “extremely frank dialogue,” was much improved. In the non-Embiid minutes, Harden ran the show flawlessly. For the first time in the series, the Sixers were on the front foot. They largely dictated the play.

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Aldridge: James Harden and Joel Embiid figured it out together when it mattered most

But the Celtics hung around because of the little things. They yet again pressed their speed advantage and got 20.2 percent of their offense in transition, according to Cleaning The Glass, and that pace led to easy buckets.

Other times, the Sixers made self-inflicted mistakes: Whether it was Maxey taking a two-for-one shot with 38 seconds on the clock, letting Jaylen Brown score two points after he rebounded his missed free throw, a general blown coverage or a missed assignment, there is plenty for the Sixers to clean up.

In the fourth quarter, the Sixers stopped running their offense. They scored just 15 points in the final 12 minutes. They got tired and then tight. The Boston bench exploded multiple times, as the Celtics gained confidence and took a five-point lead with 2 minutes, 4 seconds left.

No individual matchup summed up that final quarter more than the one between Al Horford and Joel Embiid. Boston’s first lead came on a driving dunk by Horford, who did a dance after throwing it down, tormenting the Philly crowd. He blocked Embiid’s shot three times in the last eight minutes, bringing back painful memories of 2018.

Embiid was gassed, perhaps understandably so — he played 41 minutes in regulation on short rest, after not playing any basketball for almost two weeks — but, fair or not, his subpar close to the game would have been highly scrutinized if the Sixers didn’t come back.

“I was terrible tonight,” Embiid said. “I gotta be better, I will be better.”

But the Sixers did come back. After gifting Embiid a Rolex on Wednesday, Harden bailed his teammate out on Sunday. Down five, Harden responded with a blow-by layup past Malcolm Brogdon. To send the game to overtime, he hit a running floater from the free-throw line that had an extremely high degree of difficulty.

The Sixers never win that game. We have seen it many times over the past few seasons, especially when these two teams are involved. Earlier this season, Embiid’s 70-footer was a half-second late. On Sunday, it was Marcus Smart’s 3-pointer. Jayson Tatum hit a dagger at the end of the regulation in that game, but Smart missed a wide-open shot to win the game on Sunday.

When the Sixers win games in this series, it’s not going to be perfect. Boston is too good, with too many advantages it can press.

“They take the lead and we continue to fight,” Harden said. “We don’t just shut down and we continue to battle and make shots and make timely possessions. Like, that’s what basketball is about.”

There has been much hand-wringing about the contract that president of basketball operations Daryl Morey handed out to Tucker in the offseason: three years and $33 million after some tampering penalties. After all, Tucker went scoreless in 22 games this season and he’s passed up open 3s with regularity. And even in a postseason series, teams are helping off Tucker in the corners with impunity, trying to clog the paint for Embiid and Harden. Sometimes it works, forcing Rivers’ hand into a substitution of De’Anthony Melton or Georges Niang.

But the message all season, both from the Sixers internally and Tucker, was to be patient and wait for the postseason. That is when he would make the effort plays in high-leverage situations that deflate opponents and swing games. And in one sequence, Tucker made both the tangible and intangible impact that the Sixers were looking for when they offered that deal.

With the Sixers trailing 105-102 with just over a minute left in regulation, Embiid and Tobias Harris played hot potato on a miserable possession where neither player appeared all that interested in shooting. Harris fired up an airball, which fell right in Tucker’s lap. Fortunate perhaps, but also the product of a player who consistently carves out rebounding position. Tucker converted a layup and was fouled, an improbable, back-breaking sequence of events. The camera cut to Julius Erving in a suite, who looked up to the heavens in disbelief.

“The 3-point play is just will, determination, just wanting to win,” Tucker said. “I had just got back in the game, so I had to leave an imprint somehow and usually an offensive rebound in those moments.”

But then Tucker did something likely even more important. After walking to the free-throw line, as the entire arena celebrated the play he just made, he turned around and walked to a tired Embiid on the block. And just like he did with Paul Reed in Game 1, he chewed out the league’s most valuable player.

And Embiid responded well enough in overtime, scoring four points on 1-of-2 shooting and making the game-winning assist.

“Nobody can guard Jo one-on-one,” Tucker said. “There’s no way, I’m sorry. It’s not a disrespect to Al or anybody else. I’ve guarded him for a lot of years and when he’s aggressive and assertive, it’s impossible. And I’ve seen him two, three plays in a row not do that. And we can’t have that, not with the season on the line.”

And then there was the final play. Harris curled off Embiid and the Celtics switched the action, which the Sixers were looking for. There was the option for Harden, the inbounder, to then run a dribble handoff with Embiid. But he stayed in the corner and let Embiid attack Tatum one-on-one. That’s the unspoken chemistry between those two, which we saw at the end of a win against Portland.

Embiid had the perfect “three-and-one” spacing that he and Harden have worked on all season. He took a couple of dribbles and backed down Tatum when Jaylen Brown made a mistake. He helped off the strongside corner, a cardinal sin and a curious decision up two points. Embiid made the right play, and Harden hit the game-winner.

“As soon as I saw JB help off the strongside corner, that was an easy play,” Embiid said. “The trust that we talked about all season long.”

Embiid brought up a similar play at the end of a February loss to Miami. He got doubled down two points, made the proper play and Harden got a wide-open catch-and-shoot 3. That one didn’t go in, but after the game, Embiid and Harden said they could live with the execution.

Harden famously doesn’t take many catch-and-shoot 3s. But he worked on it this season, bumping the number up to 1.8 attempts per game. He’s not going to be mistaken for Klay Thompson anytime soon, but that work paid off.

“It should tell every freaking kid, work on your weaknesses,” Rivers said. “Keep working on them, and you never know.”

Boston is plus-41 in the series. But it’s tied up because in two coin-flip games, Philadelphia has played better down the stretch. Rivers said the Sixers “executed our butt off in overtime.” They also overcame a couple of iffy calls down the stretch, including a key push-off from Tatum that went uncalled.

The Sixers go back to Boston as underdogs but with a chance to do something special.

“This team is tough,” Rivers said. “It doesn’t guarantee wins, it doesn’t guarantee anything, but we’re not going to go away. And that’s what tonight was about.”

(Top photo: Eric Hartline / USA Today)

More 76ers-Celtics coverage from The Athletic:

David Aldridge: James Harden and Joel Embiid figured it out together when it mattered most
Jared Weiss: How Celtics fell a second short against 76ers: Two crucial decisions cost them
Jay King: Celtics’ Al Horford brings optimism despite disastrous end to Game 4 in Philly
Steve Buckley: Celtics squander victory, express optimism, but what exactly did they learn?

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