The Philadelphia 76ers have been without James Harden for a critical stretch of the season as he battles an Achilles injury, and the team is now facing some scrutiny over the workload the star guard has handled leading up to the absence.
Harden sat out for his third straight game on March 25, a 125-105 loss to the Phoenix Suns on the road. The team said Harden has been dealing with swelling and soreness in his left Achilles and needs time to rest and recover, but some insiders believe the team was pushing him too hard.
Sixers, Doc Rivers Under Fire For James Harden’s Minutes
As Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer noted, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers has been resting a number of key players beside Harden as the team enters its final stretch of the regular season. Danuel House Jr. and Jalen McDaniels also missed Friday’s game, and House remained out on Saturday.
Rivers stressed that the team was being cautious, resting the players to prepare for the start of the playoffs.
“Yeah, they’re not 100%,” Rivers said, via the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s not worth the risk. This is not even rocket science. … If it was a playoff game, everyone plays, you know? So, yeah, this is not difficult. This is not us sitting in a room flipping a coin. These are very easy decisions for us.”
Congrats to James Harden (@JHarden13) of the @sixers for moving up to 20th on the NBA’s all-time assists list!
But others believe the Sixers already took too many risks, especially with Harden. Dave Early of SB Nation’s Liberty Ballers pointed out that Harden was already dealing with his Achilles ailment when Rivers played him for 47 minutes in Monday’s double-overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls.
Early added that the team knew Harden was hurting, but kept him in the game.
“He played over 30 minutes after he was first seen wincing and limping and they knew he’d been dealing with this off and on since mid January,” Early tweeted.
Doc Rivers Facing Pressure the Other Way
While Rivers is coming under criticism for pushing an injured Harden earlier in the week, the Sixers coach has also faced pressure to stop resting key players and make a strong push for a high playoff seed.
Rivers spoke out against his critics after Saturday’s loss to the Suns, saying he isn’t concerned with the way others think he should manage the players.
“I’m going to tell you something: I can care less about some people,” Rivers said. “I’m worried about the 76ers and our team. And we’re going to do what’s right for our team. I [couldn’t] care less about what anybody says.”
Rivers then touched specifically on Harden, saying he would have faced even sharper criticism had he continued to play the All-Star guard and his Achilles injury worsened as a result.
“There’s no people on our team that feels that way, you know?” he said. “All of us know we’ve got to do it right. If James plays and he gets hurt, then what will some people say? You know what I’m saying? So we’ve got to do it by team. We’re always going to do that.”
back at it Monday.
The Sixers dropped to 49-25 with Saturday’s loss, putting them two games behind the Boston Celtics for second place in the Eastern Conference with eight games remaining.
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Sixers Under Fire for Handling of James Harden’s Injury