76ers at Rockets
James Harden spent the last few seasons hanging around the fringes of the MVP discussion but is taking his game to another level while playing point guard in Mike D'Antoni's offense. Harden will try to post his third straight triple-double when his Houston Rockets host the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday.
Harden is averaging 14.2 assists in the last six games and an NBA-best 13 on the season while putting up 30 points and joining Jason Kidd as the only player with multiple triple-doubles against the San Antonio Spurs in the Gregg Popovich era. Harden's 24 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds were enough to earn a 101-99 win at San Antonio on Wednesday, but 25 points, 13 assists and 11 boards were not quite enough to overcome the Spurs at home on Saturday in a 106-100 setback. The 76ers don't have any guards that can match Harden for production but finally have a player matching him in excitement in center Joel Embiid. The rookie scored a season-high 25 points to lead Philadelphia to its first win on Friday and got the night off Saturday as the team manages his workload, keeping him fresh for Monday's date with Harden and company.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBATV, CSN Philadelphia, ROOT Southwest (Houston)
ABOUT THE 76ERS (1-8): Friday's triumph snapped a streak of 44 straight losses in the months of October and November, but Philadelphia struggled to follow it up on Saturday with Embiid sitting out to rest his surgically repaired foot. Jahlil Okafor and Dario Saric are part of the future for the 76ers as well and combined for 30 points in Saturday's 117-96 loss at Atlanta despite Okafor (knee) still dealing with his own minutes restriction. “I thought that Jahlil Okafor had a great game,” Philadelphia coach Brett Brown told reporters. "The four-minute chunks we had been giving him, we extended that. I thought he strung some consecutive minutes where he looked fluid. It looked like his conditioning was better, and I thought Jahlil played very well."
ABOUT THE ROCKETS (5-4): Getting Harden a little help is a focus for Houston, and Eric Gordon stepped up on Saturday and became the first player other than Harden to lead the team in scoring with 27 points. Gordon, 27, has not logged more than 64 games played since his rookie season in 2008-09 and was limited to 45 in his final season with New Orleans last year but has yet to miss a game with the Rockets and played at least 29 minutes in each contest. Gordon, who buried 7-of-12 3-point attempts on Saturday, came off the bench in the last three games and is the primary scorer on the second unit.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Rockets F Ryan Anderson went 1-of-13 from the field on Saturday after scoring over 20 points in each of the previous two contests.
2. 76ers G Sergio Rodriguez went 3-of-4 from 3-point range on Saturday after struggling to 2-of-20 from beyond the arc in the previous four contests.
3. Houston took the last five in the series.