Getty James Harden and P.J. Tucker of the Philadelphia 76ers.
It’s been an up-and-down season for Philadelphia 76ers veteran PJ Tucker, to say the least. A free-agent addition this summer, the former champion was expected to add an edge to a Sixers team desperately lacking toughness and that “dawg” mentality.
And while Tucker has provided that experience and edge, he’s been a liability on the court at times. That wasn’t quite the case against the Celtics on Tuesday — Tucker managed 11 points on the game including a breakout nine-point fourth quarter — but his 3.6 points per game are the lowest among regular starters in the NBA this season.
After defeating the Celtics, James Harden defended Tucker, praising his former Rockets teammate’s strong night.
“I know him like the back of my hand,” Harden said, per USA Today’s Sixers Wire. “There’s a lot of frustration as far as where he needs to be on the floor, we’re still trying to work that out, but tonight (Tuesday) was great. You gotta put them in a corner because he’s an unbelievable corner 3-point shooter.”
“I mean, he’s been that way his whole career,” Harden finished. “So tonight, he was in the corner by himself. They double-teamed, Joel passed it to him, he had the confidence to knock the shots down. Hopefully, this game can build his confidence and we can keep it going from there.”
Tucker earned similar praise from the Celtics.
Joe Mazzulla Praises PJ Tucker After 76ers Beat Celtics
With the Sixers winning by just two, it’s fair to say every one of Tucker’s nine points in the fourth quarter was needed. And if you ask Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, Tucker was one of the determining factors in the Sixers’ win.
“If [PJ] Tucker doesn’t make those three threes, it’s a completely different game. Or if we let Embiid keep going, maybe he misses a couple. You don’t know,” Mazzulla said. “But I thought our guys competed. I thought they were very detailed in keeping him off the free-throw line. I thought he just had a great night, and we weren’t tremendous on the offensive end like we normally are.”
Harden, for his part, managed a 20-10 double-double. But the star of the show was Joel Embiid, whose 52-point night was nearly spoiled by a series of late-game miscues.
Doc Rivers Blasts Celtics for Flopping
The Sixers led by two with two seconds left on the clock, when Embiid was called for a foul on Grant Williams before the Sixers’ inbounds. As a result, possession flipped to the Celtics and had Jayson Tatum converted his turnaround fadeaway, the game would be sent to OT.
After, Doc Rivers blasted the foul call on Embiid.
“We were trying to give them the game back,” Rivers said. “I mean, we really tried. We did a lot of things that you can’t do, from pulling in from the corner, which we never do. I think we did it four times; they scored on three of them. But they had another one, fouling a guy on a layup. We went through the whole laundry list. Falling out of bounds at the end of the game where you know they’re not going to give it to you.”
Rivers went so far as to say Williams flopped to get the foul call:
“Knowing that the Celtics flop, you know that they were going to do that at the end; we said that in the timeout. Not paying attention when the guys on the free throw line, which is clearly, I mean, we had the whole gambit. So in some ways, it was a good way to win because it gave us material in a crazy way, to hit home about all the little points.”
The Sixers are back in action Thursday against the Miami Heat.