Harden on the Bench: A Bold Move to Turn the Tides in a Must-Win Game for the Sixers

This is a must-win game for the Sixers. Boston was favored and is a better team. To be down 3 to 1 to them is too big a mountain to even try to climb. Doc Rivers should keep Harden on the bench for the first half. Right now, the flow is not good when he is on the court with Embiid. In the second half, he can come in as a sixth man when Joel is on the floor but only shoot from the three-point line.

Corey Alexander of ESPN is totally wrong when he says he wants to see Harden drive to the basket. Those drives in game one were an anomaly. Sometimes an older player can recapture his youth for a spurt. Game one was a spurt, nothing more. Game two and three show that Harden cannot drive the lane. Put Harden in when Joel comes off the floor. See how that all goes.

Conversely, let Harden start without Embiid as they were very effective that way in game one. Tell James to play freely and remind the team that they have nothing to lose. Nobody gave them a shot, so they should play like they did in game one. Bring in Embiid as necessary, but take Harden out when that happens. Just remind James that he can't drive to the lane completely; he should pull up at 10 feet and shoot a floater like he did before. No drives to the rim.