James Harden Sounds Off on Sixers’ Struggles vs. Celtics

After Wednesday's loss in Boston, Sixers guard James Harden voiced his frustrations.

The Philadelphia 76ers were coming off of a tough loss against the New York Knicks going into their Wednesday night matchup against the Boston Celtics. After collapsing from a 21-point lead and collecting an 11-point loss on Sunday, James Harden and the Sixers acknowledged that the Sixers had a lot they had to clean up before Wednesday’s game against the top-seeded Celtics.

How did that matchup go? Not as desired for the Sixers.

Once again, the Sixers were out in front early on. While they didn’t have a significant double-digit lead over Boston, they had the Celtics in a seven-point hole. However, Boston’s hot shooting left the Sixers trailing by three points through the first quarter. 

From then on, the Sixers never found a way to regain the lead and only teased a possible comeback once.

“It’s very disappointing — very frustrating — especially coming off of a loss that we played in New York,” said James Harden after Wednesday’s game.” It was an opportunity for us to have a good bounce-back game, and we didn’t do it.”

Offensively, the Sixers had a decent outing. While they didn’t shoot particularly great from three, they hit on 45 percent of their shots while turning the ball over only seven times. 

However, the Celtics shot more efficiently from the field and from deep, knocking down 54 percent of their shots from beyond the arc. As much as the Celtics deserve credit for their makes, the Sixers’ defense — especially on the perimeter — was an issue all night.

“I mean, they get off to a… Blake Griffin hit three threes, I think, from the beginning and went five or six threes,” Harden continued. “No disrespect, but that can’t happen. That’s 15 points, 18 points that we’ve given up. That is difficult to get back from. I think we did a solid job on JT, you know what I mean? But that can’t happen.”

The Sixers paid for their defensive struggles on Wednesday night with a 106-99 loss. Sometimes, teams can learn a lesson through defeat, but Wednesday’s outcome didn’t offer Philadelphia anything but a 19th loss to add to their record in the eyes of Harden.

“No lessons,” Harden finished. “We got to do whatever it takes to win the game.”

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.