Harden Acknowledges He Needs to be More Aggressive vs. Heat After Game 1

Without Joel Embiid headlining the Philadelphia 76ers' starting lineup, the team looked to its ten-time All-Star James Harden to take over the offense.

Considering Harden's been in the league since 2009 and has led his previous teams in playoff runs, the veteran guard wasn't entering foreign territory when he found out that Embiid would miss at least the first two games of the second-round series against the Miami Heat this week.

As expected, Doc Rivers revealed that the Sixers' offense would run through James Harden in Game 1. Following a practice session on Sunday morning, Harden mentioned he would have to turn his aggressiveness up a notch in order to make the temporary new-look Sixers work.

“[I just have to] be more aggressive,” said Harden on Sunday. “I’ve been doing this — I’m comfortable and have been doing this for a long time. Just taking what the defense gives me and being aggressive, and making the right decision once I get to that point. More floor spacing and more attacks to the basket. We just have to play free — free and with the ultimate confidence as a group.”

In the first quarter of Monday's game, Harden's lack of success from the field prevented him from catching fire. As he drained just one of his five attempts, Harden managed to collect only five points as the Sixers fell into a double-digit deficit early.

When the second quarter rolled around, Harden picked it up. Before halftime, Harden drained all but one of his four shots from the field. As the Sixers made a run and came back, Harden's seven second-quarter points helped Philadelphia obtain a small lead before going into halftime.

But his third quarter was a quiet one. As Harden played the entire 12 minutes coming out of the half, he put up just three shots. While Miami put together another run, Harden scored just four of Philadelphia's 20 third-quarter points.

Going into the final quarter, Harden had 16 points off of 12 shots. In the three minutes he checked in during the fourth quarter, the star guard put up just one more shot, which was unsuccessful.

Overall, Harden wrapped up Game 1 with 16 points in 34 minutes. Despite planning to have the offense run through him, Harden took the third-most amount of shots in the Sixers' starting lineup.

After the 76ers fell short to the Heat, Harden preached the same message as his pre-Game 1 message, acknowledging he needs to be more aggressive.

“I think I can be a little bit more aggressive,” the guard admitted. “They did a really good job of just boxes and elbows, just showing their bodies and crowding the ball when ball screens came. We’ll watch the film, and find ways to get better, but I think the shot-making is what opens up the floor for our entire team. We make a couple of shots, then that floor opens up a little bit more.”

It's no secret the Sixers struggled from deep on Monday night. As they chucked up 34 shots from beyond the arc, just 17-percent of those shots went down successfully. Harden, who drained two of his threes, was the only member of the team to knock down multiple deep shots in Game 1.

While Harden will have to create more for his own in Game 2, the veteran guard believes that better shooting from the team as a whole will help with spacing, which should translate to consistent scoring from Philadelphia.

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