James Harden put on his big boy pants

PLUS: Nikola Jokic is the best player in the Suns vs. Nuggets series, in case you were wondering.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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James Harden before the Sixers’ Game 1 in Boston against the Celtics, knowing he wasn’t going to have Joel Embiid to help:

James Harden during the game: 45 points on 17/30 shooting (7/14 from three), including this go-ahead basket in the closing seconds.

He got the switch he wanted (one that will make Sixers fans smile), he didn’t try to force or finagle contact. He just hit his signature stepback on him for the win. Incredible.

Harden scored 45, tying a career playoff high, on only four free throws. That was Harden’s 10th career 40-point playoff game, and his lowest FTA total in any of them. In fact, he’s only ever scored 30 in a playoff game with fewer than five free throws once before in 45 such games. He’s always been a player whose scoring output relied on getting to the line. He didn’t get to the line on Monday, and still dominated.

Is this an aberration for Harden, who wasn’t actually very good in the Sixers’ sweep of Brooklyn? In that series, Harden failed to get to the line much (14 FTAs over four games) and was abysmal shooting inside the arc. Is this big Game 1 a function of rest that Harden’s been able to rack up since April 22? Or is he just once again comfortable getting to his spots, knowing that he’ll have the Big Fella coming back at some point in this series?

The Celtics lost this game in a few spots, to me. The first was closing the opening half. Boston took a 12-point lead with 3:31 left in the second quarter after a Jayson Tatum three. He was on absolute fire with 24 points. De’Anthony Melton answered with a three on a feed from Harden, Marcus Smart turned over the ball and after a timeout the Sixers got themselves all the way back into the game with a Harden-BBall Paul pick-and-roll, another Melton three, a Melton-BBall Paul pick-and-roll, a Tobias Harris three and a bunch of misses on tough shots by Boston.

The Celtics had a window to put their feet on the Sixers’ necks going into halftime, and instead it was a 3-point game.