James Harden Issues Heavy Praise to Embiid After Career Game

After dealing with a family matter amid his recovery from a tendon strain, Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden returned to the team’s bench last weekend. As the Sixers hosted the Atlanta Hawks for the first of back-to-back matchups, Harden was on the sidelines supporting his teammates.

On Sunday night, when the Sixers faced the Utah Jazz, Harden witnessed his superstar teammate Joel Embiid put on the best performance of the big man’s career.

After the game, Harden tweeted out a simple yet straightforward tweet regarding Embiid’s near 60-point night. When the star guard addressed the media for the first time since suffering his injury on Thursday, the ten-time All-Star questioned why the Jazz didn’t adjust to Embiid’s dominance.

“I was there live,” said Harden. “I don’t know why they didn’t double-team him. That’s the thing I was thinking about. The opposing team, you know what I mean? He had it going.”

Going into the fourth quarter of Philadelphia’s matchup against the Jazz, Embiid already had an impressive stat line of 33 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, and two blocks.

After the most-dominant fourth-quarter performance of his career, Embiid finished the night with 59 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists, and seven blocks after helping lead the 76ers past the Jazz by scoring 26 of their 27 fourth-quarter points.

“I told him to get a 60-point triple-double,” Harden continued. “He couldn’t pass the ball, he just had it going. You could just see that bounce in his step that he had. Every shot was going in. He was making some really good passes, which kind of opened things up a little bit more for him to score the ball.”

Last season, Harden picked Embiid as his MVP favorite as the big man was on his way to collecting another runner-up credential. While Embiid didn’t win the Most Valuable Player last season, witnessing the big man’s Sunday night performance led Harden to mention the three letters once more.

“That was an overall MVP-like performance,” Harden finished. “Defensively, he was just chasing everything on the rim. That was elite right there. That was one of the best games I’ve seen.”

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.