On April 1, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, and Philadelphia lost to the Pistons 94-102, breaking out a big cold. After losing this game, the team coach Rivers also criticized Harden by name, but at the same time he also mentioned that some players chose to play quickly without passing, which is obviously saying Embiid. Obviously, Rivers is not very satisfied with the performance of the Philadelphia duo, and although some fans feel that Rivers is throwing the pot, frankly, the Philadelphia double core is criticized, in fact, it is reasonable.
Because of this game, Embiid and Harden are a little too obsessed with 1-on-1, and forget their most powerful way of playing - blocking and dismantling. Especially in the fourth quarter of the game, the two basically took turns to single, the rest of the team stood and watched, and the result was that Philadelphia lost to the Pistons 15-29 in the single quarter by 14 points.
So the question is, why Harden and Embiid were almost seamless when they first joined forces, and the chemistry was very good, but now that they have been working together for a long time, they are a little uncomfortable with each other. In fact, the main reason is that the mentality of both sides has changed to a certain extent.
You know, when the two first joined forces, one was to get rid of Simmons, who did not play, and the other was to get rid of Irving, who was a part-time player at the time, so the two had some empathy on the psychological level and were willing to sacrifice for each other. So it can be seen that Embiid will frequently block Harden, and Harden has also put his posture very low, indicating that he is willing to help Embiid get the MVP.
But in recent games, Harden's state has fluctuated, and as a result, the outside world's doubts have gradually sounded. Especially in the game lost to the Suns, the outside world blamed Harden for not daring to attack, and Rivers also expressed hope that he could be himself. As a result, Harden can only start to increase his own shots, and even regain the playing style of the Rockets. But now his competitive state and physical condition, and the Rockets' peak of their own gap is obvious, so it is difficult to be as stable as in the past, the state of ups and downs, the result is Philadelphia consecutive losses, Harden for how to play, but also more and more confused.
On Embiid's side, the situation is also very delicate. You know, before Harden was traded to Philadelphia, he was a popular candidate for MVP, but recently lost to Jokic, Booker and Alphabet Brother, and was at a disadvantage in the MVP competition, Embiid was obviously in a hurry, hoping to use better data to increase the possibility of winning. Therefore, his personal singles are more and more, but the number of blocks is significantly reduced. After all, blocking and dismantling the cake seems simple, but the ball right obtained will be greatly reduced, and the tactical position is also an auxiliary, and increasing the number of singles and ball rights is obviously more conducive to getting good data.
If the Philadelphia duo continues to play like this, they will have no hope of competing for the title this season. So now the two must also adjust the mentality, Harden still needs to organize more tandem team, do not easily change because of external doubts, because now his singles ability, it is impossible to return to the level of the Rockets period, blindly increasing singles can only be a lose-lose between himself and the team.
Embiid, on the other hand, should look down on the regular season award of MVP, take a longer-term view, and re-engage in a large number of blocking and dismantling with Harden. Otherwise, if the two cores are fighting for each other and the whole team is scattered, how can such a team go far in the playoffs?