James Harden looks like a different player, and other thoughts on the Sixers’ Game 1 win over the Nets | David Murphy

If there was any doubt about the rejuvenated state of James Harden’s 33-year-old body, it disappeared with 6:30 left in the second quarter of the Sixers 121-101 win over the Nets on Saturday afternoon. It was at that moment that Harden unleashed a step-back move so strong and instantaneous that it knocked Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie a full five feet backwards simply from the change of direction.

Really, you saw it throughout the Sixers’ brilliant offensive performance against the Nets. He scored 23 points, attempted 21 shots, sank seven of his 13 attempts from three-point range. In short, he was a difference-maker, the kind of player who can carry a team for long stretches of a postseason game, a legitimate primary scorer whose presence greatly reduced the need for Joel Embiid to carry a full load.

The biggest example of this is his ability to execute that step-back jumper, a move that accounted for close to half his attempts from the field when he was at his peak. More than 83% of his makes from that range were unassisted. Compare that to last year’s playoffs, when a lingering hamstring injury sapped Harden of the core strength required to execute quick-twitch change-of-direction moves. In the Sixers’ two postseason series, he attempted just 6.

1) Jayson Tatum’s mouth is going to be watering like it’s dinner time when he watches the tape of Mikal Bridges’ first-half performance. The former Villanova star is thriving in his new role as a primary ballhandler and the Sixers spent most of the first two quarters trying to figure out a way to slow him down. Bridges scored 23 points in a first half in which he was consistently able to get himself to practically any spot on the court without any trouble at all.

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