James Harden finds his old groove and gets the Sixers back on track

PHILADELPHIA — James Harden of the 76ers was on his way to Wells Fargo Center Sunday morning when he received a text message from his coach, Doc Rivers, containing a link to a gospel song, “You Know My Name” by Tasha Cobbs Leonard. It was the first time Rivers had sent Harden a song. His curiosity was aroused.

“I say to my homies, ‘Let’s play the song,'” Harden recalled, adding, “I let the whole song play, and I was like, ‘Okay, it must be some kind of good juju in this song.’ ”

Of course it wasn’t random text. The basketball universe had spent about 36 hours dissecting Harden’s poor play in the past two games of the 76ers’ Eastern Conference semifinals against the Boston Celtics. The purpose of sending the song, Rivers said, was to remind Harden of his identity.

“James had to get himself back,” Rivers said.

Sure enough, with 19 seconds left in overtime on Sunday afternoon, Harden sank a baseline 3-pointer that propelled the 76ers to a 116-115 win and tied the best-of-seven series at 2-2 . Harden was brilliant in Game 4, finishing with 42 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds and 4 steals.

“Honestly,” said Harden, “today was a hit or miss.”

The 76ers have been a staple of the NBA playoffs for the past six seasons, playing in the conference semifinals five times. But those second round runs are where the road tends to end for them. The last time they made the conference finals was in 2001, when Allen Iverson led them past the Milwaukee Bucks to the NBA Finals. (The 76ers ended up losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.)

The collective patience of the people of Philadelphia seems to be running out. Before Game 3, when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver presented 76ers center Joel Embiid with his first Most Valuable Player Award, it was the fulfillment — on at least one level — of the franchise’s dust-covered team-building blueprint, known as the Process . Without going into too much of the messy details, it involved the team playing terrible basketball for several seasons while amassing a slew of top picks, one of which they used to select Embiid from the University of Kansas.

Of course, the challenge for the 76ers is that the process was never about winning individual accolades, although those are nice. Players like Embiid and Harden, as well as Rivers and Daryl Morey, the team’s president of basketball operations, are now mandated to compete for a championship. Embiid is 29. The 76ers traded for Harden last season. Before Game 4, Rivers was asked about his team’s urgency.

“Do I really have to answer that question?” he said laughing. “You worked on that question for 48 hours and that’s what you came up with? Whatever high is, I assume it is high.”

Harden delivered. Early in the first quarter, he made a straight line to the basket and scored on a runner, playfully knocking the ball off his head after it fell through the hoop. It was a sign that more fireworks were to come.

It wasn’t easy at all. The 76ers gave up a 16-point lead in the third quarter. Embiid finished with 34 points and 13 rebounds, but struggled from the field, shooting 11 of 26. And Jayson Tatum scored 22 of his 24 points after halftime, nearly leading the Celtics to a landslide comeback victory. Instead, Harden took on the burden for the 76ers.

“I’m always a competitor,” he said. “I always want to win.”

During the regular season, Harden operated as a facilitator, averaging 10.7 assists per game. He was neither the scoring nor the 3-point shooting machine he was in a former basketball career with the Houston Rockets. Instead, he formed a powerful partnership with Embiid, the team’s centripetal force. Not for nothing, everything and everyone revolved around Embiid, including Harden.

Game 1 of the 76ers’ series with the Celtics upset that balance in a strange and unexpected way. Embiid had sprained his right knee late in the first round and was sidelined, meaning Harden apparently felt obligated to board his personal time machine and travel back to his gluttonous, ball-dominating days with the Rockets. He set fire to the Celtics, scoring 45 points while shooting 7 of 14 from 3-point range to lead the 76ers to a narrow victory.

Embiid was back in the lineup for Games 2 and 3, and suddenly Harden seemed almost too aware of his teammate’s presence, too passive and reverent. It hardly helped that Jaylen Brown bonded with Harden for a long time. In those two losses, Harden shot a combined 5 of 28 from the field and 2 of 13 from 3-point range. Game 3 on Friday was particularly gruesome. Harden routinely passed open shots. When he launched a three-pointer early in the fourth quarter, he barely grazed the front of the rim. More than a few fans expressed their displeasure.

“I think with everyone, if you don’t take pictures, sometimes you hesitate,” Rivers said.

For his part, Harden defended his shot selection, telling reporters, “I’m pretty good at basketball instincts. I know when to score. I know when to pass, so I’m pretty sure a lot of the game was good.”

On Saturday, the 76ers had a long filming session at their practice facility. Rivers identified clips from Game 3 in which he felt the 76ers needed to play with more pace, in which the Celtics outsmarted them on rebounds and loose balls, and in which his players displayed poor body language. The Celtics, who advanced to the NBA Finals last season and renewed their own title aspirations, are behaving differently.

“I think yesterday the movie told us what we should be,” Rivers said, “that they’re going to run, that we’re going to make a mistake. It’s not going well, and just keep playing.”

On Sunday, the 76ers made a lot of mistakes. Their attack stopped in the fourth quarter. They stopped moving and settled for hard shots. However, Harden has playoff experience and he said he was also inspired by it the presence of John Hao, a student who survived the fatal shooting at Michigan State University in February. Harden and Hao connected via FaceTime.

Late in regulation, Harden’s runner over Al Horford of the Celtics tied the game, 107–107. And in overtime, Harden engineered a key theft while defending Marcus Smart. He proved to be a calming influence on his teammates.

He also found himself with the ball in his hands when it mattered most. He knew who he was.