Doc Rivers Feels James Harden Diagnosis Was Best-Case Scenario

Doc Rivers believes James Harden and the 76ers dodged a bullet.

When James Harden went down with a lower-body injury in the first half of the Philadelphia 76ers’ Wednesday night matchup against the Washington Wizards, the star guard concerned his teammates and coaches as he was clearly in a lot of pain.

The Sixers let out a sigh of relief when they realized the ten-time All-Star would remain in the game. Playing through an injury is nothing new for Harden, who has proven to be a tough player. But the Sixers didn’t find comfort in the fact he had another moment in the second half where he got banged up once again.

After the game, Harden was clearly in pain. After finishing Wednesday’s matchup with a 35-minute shift, the star guard underwent testing on his foot. Not long after the final buzzer, the Sixers’ medical staff knew Harden would need to get an MRI done the following morning.

Sixers head coach Doc Rivers discovered that Harden’s injury was significant when he returned to his office after his post-press conference on Wednesday night. The Sixers remained optimistic and tried not to jump to conclusions before Harden got imaging done on his foot.

The following afternoon, a Sixers official confirmed Harden suffered a tendon strain in his right foot. As a result, Harden will be out for at least two weeks. The star guard will be re-evaluated then and get a clearer answer on his timeline for return.

“I don’t know what my reaction was other than disappointing,” Doc Rivers said Friday night. “Obviously, kind of felt it.”

Initially, Rivers was under the impression the injury was much worse than it was. While potentially missing a month’s worth of games certainly isn’t ideal for the struggling Sixers, Rivers feels Harden and the team dodged a bullet.

“Honestly, it’s better than what we thought, so I can give you that much. That was in a crazy way, good news, I guess, because we thought it would be a lot worse, and it turned out to be better,” Rivers explained. “It is what it is. We talked about it before the year; we’re a “we” team and just got to keep getting through all the stuff we’re going through at the beginning of the year. It’s just the way it is. There is nothing you can do about it.”

Without Harden, the Sixers have to rely a lot on their third-year guard, Tyrese Maxey. This year, Maxey’s been the team’s most consistent player in the scoring department, as he’s been available for every game and producing the second-most amount of points per game behind Joel Embiid.

Playmaking-wise, Maxey will have to step up and do what he can to compensate for the loss of Harden in the meantime.

“I’ll be ball-handling a little bit more and try to facilitate a little bit more to get guys in their spots,” said Maxey. “Same kind of thing I had to do at the beginning of last year before we got him. Just still be aggressive and find ways to help us win games.”

Game one without Harden didn’t go in the Sixers’ favor. Granted, they are still missing the other All-Star, Joel Embiid, as he deals with a non-COVID illness. Philly’s shorthanded effort was promising against the New York Knicks on Friday night, but they collected another loss. With Harden out for at least a couple of weeks, the Sixers will have to figure out what they can do to make up for the loss.

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