Did Doc Rivers just throw James Harden under the bus?
The 76ers suffered a brutal 102-94 road loss to the lowly Pistons Thursday, scoring only 15 points in the fourth quarter and blowing a late lead. In the game. Philadelphia’s bench was outscored 39-8 by Detroit’s — but when Sixers head coach Doc Rivers was asked about that group’s struggles, he went in a different direction.
“They didn’t struggle, they didn’t get a lot of shots, in their defense,” Rivers said. “I think in that stretch, it was more James [Harden] than them. Just a tough night.”
One could interpret this quote in two different ways. Immediately after, many assumed Rivers was ripping Harden, who admittedly struggled in Thursday’s loss. He shot 4-of-15 from the field and 2-of-9 from deep, finishing with 18 points.
However, as Crossing Broad pointed out, perhaps the comments were less pointed than originally thought. Harden was running the second unit for much of its time on the court, and took a majority of the shot attempts.
In fact, the Philly bench took only 12 shots combined, hitting three of them. In comparison, the Detroit bench took 27 shots (hitting an impressive 59 percent). So the 39-8 scoring difference may be an unfair point of contention.
Still, it is notable that Rivers was willing to call Harden out by name. The guard has been on the team since its February trade with the Nets, which sent Ben Simmons to Brooklyn in return. Harden has largely played up to expectations, though he has shot below 40 percent in the month of March.
The Sixers currently sit in the fourth seed in East, one game back of the surging Celtics.
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