The Los Angeles Clippers felt the full wrath of the Philadelphia 76ers’ superstar duo of Joel Embiid and James Harden. Embiid exploded for 44 points in the 119-114 win, while Harden dished out a mind-blowing career-high 21 assists on the evening. The Clippers, who had strong performances from both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, simply had no answer to the power of the Sixers pair.
After the game, Embiid talked about his partnership with Harden. The Sixers’ cornerstone big man had nothing but high praise for Harden as Embiid described just how great life has been with James in the mix:
“We just did what we’re supposed to do every single night, playing off each other,” Embiid said, via Paul Hudrick of SB Nation. “He makes my life easier and I sure hope I do the same for him. … Every single day I just think we’re getting better.”
Based on Embiid’s declaration here, it is clear that the Sixers haven’t even reached their final form yet. These two have been together for some time now, but they’ve still managed to achieve a perfect synergy between them. It feels like it’s now just a matter of time before they do, which means that this is going to be a big problem for the rest of the NBA.
Harden echoed Embiid’s thoughts. The former league MVP also talked up the importance of the communication between himself and Embiid as they look to carry the Sixers to ultimate success this season:
“Constant work, talk about it, communication, going out there and do it,” Harden said. “And then obviously, we want to see each other succeed. So I ask him something or tell him something and vice versa, we do it. And we know that’s better for our team — him rolling or him in that pocket, us getting shots now and opening up the game for our shooters. So, it’s working really well and honestly we can get better at it.”
Even James Harden believes that there is still a lot of room for improvement in his partnership with Joel Embiid. Will the rest of the league be ready once these two hit peak form at the same time? I guess we’ll all just have to wait and find out.
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