{"id":292055,"date":"2023-05-02T04:05:04","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T04:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=292055"},"modified":"2023-05-02T04:58:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T04:58:56","slug":"vintage-harden-notches-career-high-in-boilover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=292055","title":{"rendered":"Vintage Harden notches career-high in boilover"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Harden<\/a> matched his playoff career high with 45 points and hit a go-ahead, step-back three-pointer over Al Horford with 8.7 seconds left as the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> rallied without Joel Embiid<\/a> to beat the Boston Celtics<\/a> 119-115 in game one of their Eastern Conference semi-final matchup on Tuesday AEST.<\/p>\n

Tyrese Maxey added 26 points and Tobias Harris finished with 18 for the Sixers, who made 17 three-pointers in the absence of MVP finalist Embiid, who sat out after spraining his right knee in game three of Philadelphia\u2019s first-round series against the Brooklyn Nets.<\/p>\n

Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 39 points and 11 rebounds. Jaylen Brown added 23 points and Malcolm Brogdon finished with 20.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Give up': Schumacher delivered brutal reality check<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Sneaky Tigers signing to 'put pressure on Brooks'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Gallen scoffs as disgruntled Hunt linked to NRL rival<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Boston hosts game two on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Harden previously scored 45 points for the Houston Rockets in a Western Conference Finals win over Golden State on May 25, 2015.<\/p>\n

\"BOSTON,<\/p>\n

Trailing 117-115, the Celtics had one final chance and got the ball to Tatum, but he lost the ball to Paul Reed, who was fouled and hit a pair of free throws.<\/p>\n

The game was tied at 87-all entering the back-and-forth final period.<\/p>\n

Tatum gave the Celtics their final lead, 115-114, on a pair of free throws with 26.1 seconds left.<\/p>\n

Before that, Boston took the shot clock down before Maxey intercepted a pass by Brogdon and drove in for a layup to put the 76ers back in front, 114-113.<\/p>\n

Boston led 108-107 when Harden was called for an offensive foul on Horford. On the ensuing possession, Horford found Marcus Smart, who was fouled on a layup. He completed the three-point play to make it 111-107.<\/p>\n

\"BOSTON,<\/p>\n

Maxey responded with a three-point play of his own.<\/p>\n

The game was knotted at 102 when Brogdon got free on a fast break, took a pass from Tatum and dropped in a layup with 5:04 remaining.<\/p>\n

After the play, P.J. Tucker appeared to swing wildly in frustration and made contact with Tatum. It led to a brief scrum that was broken up by officials.<\/p>\n

Reed took Embiid\u2019s place in the starting lineup, like he did with Embiid out for the final game of the Nets series. As expected, Embiid\u2019s absence in the middle contributed to a faster pace.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/statmuse\/status\/1653215117842972672<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/KendrickPerkins\/status\/1653221833418633217<\/a><\/p>\n

Both teams used it to their advantage.<\/p>\n

The Celtics attacked the paint, connecting on 13 of their first 14 shots. The 76ers made eight of their first 10 attempts, spacing the floor well and spreading out Boston\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n

Harden led the attack early for Philadelphia, hitting his first five attempts, including two threes. Brown started six-for-6 from the field for a Boston team that thrived without Embiid protecting the rim, going on an 11-0 run at one point.<\/p>\n

Boston shot 74 per cent for the half but took only a 66-63 lead into halftime after the 76ers went 11-for-19 (55 per cent) from the three-point line.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Harden matched his playoff career high with 45 points and hit a go-ahead, step-back three-pointer over Al Horford with 8.7 seconds left as the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":292057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=292055"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292060,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292055\/revisions\/292060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/292057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=292055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=292055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=292055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}