James Harden’s Achilles Soreness Remains Concerning for 76ers

Doc Rivers and the 76ers are closely monitoring James Harden's setback as the season winds down.

Following a win against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night, Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden opened up about the state of his recent Achilles soreness.

While the setback seemed sudden, as Harden went from injury-free to missing four-straight games after a double-overtime loss against the Chicago Bulls, Harden revealed that the Achilles soreness is nothing new. And he’s been dealing with it for months.

“I think it’s been managed,” Sixers head coach Doc Rivers said on Friday night before the 76ers tipped off against the Toronto Raptors. 

Harden mentioned on Wednesday that he doesn’t think the setback will “completely go away.” While the team is doing all it can to manage the star guard’s setback down the stretch of the regular season, Rivers made it clear that it’s still concerning regardless.

“It’s always a concern, honestly,” Rivers continued. “You want him to be healthy. Calves and Achilles, those are things that pop up during the year and you just hope they go away. That’s why we’ve managed them so well over the past couple of weeks. Giving them rest. Even during practice, not having them on the floor a lot. We’re doing everything we can.”

Harden proceeded to play for the Sixers on Friday night. Coming off of a 38-minute shift against the Mavericks on Wednesday, Harden played for 37 minutes on Friday night. After the matchup, he cut straight to the chase when asked how he’s feeling physically. 

“I feel good,” Harden said. 

While Harden’s pushing through without dealing with any further setbacks momentarily, Doc Rivers leaves the idea out there that Harden could get some additional rest as the regular season concludes.

“Right now, you look at our sheet, he’s clean as far as playing games,” Rivers finished. “We’ll see how this week and next week goes and we’ll go from there.”

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