Scouting the Sixers’ final eight regular-season games
The Philadelphia 76ers vs. the Houston Rockets
Woah, woah, woah, hold up. If the Philadelphia 76ers are a poor matchup against Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers, they’d have to be a really, really bad matchup against James Harden and the Houston Rockets, right?
Not necessarily.
Sure, Harden is a better scorer than Lillard, maybe the best in the NBA as a whole, but the team Daryl Morey has built around him is not a good matchup against Philly’s massive starting five.
I mean really, we’re talking about a game where Joel Embiid will get to face off one-on-one against centers-in-name-only like P.J. Tucker and our old pal Robert Covington.
Need I say more?
Granted, the Rockets have a pair of former league MVPs in Harden and Russell Westbrook, but that duo is hardly as formidable as their name recognition would suggest. Even if the Rockets are able to drain 3 pointers at an above-average clip – their 2019-20 team average is only 34.8 – they just don’t have a player around who can stop Embiid from scoring 30, 40, 50 points – a fitting outcome when his first true ‘coming out party’ on national television came against the Rockets what feels like a lifetime ago.