Harris stays hot after struggles in the opener
Tobias Harris has found his shooting stroke after a dismal performance in the Sixers opening night victory over the Washington Wizards.
Since that 3-for-13 performance, which included an 0-for-4 effort from 3-point range, the forward has been a beast.
Harris has averaged nearly 20 points (19.7) over the last three games, shooting 52 percent overall and 50 percent from 3-point range.
Harris turned in his best game of the season as the Sixers rallied in the second half for a 100-93 victory over the Toronto Raptors Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
He scored a season-high 26 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, handed out three assists, blocked two shots and made two steals to help the Sixers extend their home winning streak to 17 games.
“I just thought in the second half he got very aggressive on both ends,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers said.
Yet for all his points, rebounds and assists, it was a veteran move made in the second half that brought a smile to Rivers’ face.
“We were bringing the ball down and Tobias ran and grabbed the ball from Ben and told us to throw the ball to the post,” Rivers said. “Like he demanded that we post up. What I loved about that is that Tobias had it going and he looked at the matchup and said, we’re going down to the post. That’s the type of stuff you love as a coach. That was the right decision too, by the way. That leadership and toughness he showed was terrific.”
Harris connected on 11 of 20 shots overall and 2-for-5 from 3-point range. He saved his best for the second half, scoring 15 points after the break. He also had a key block on a shot by Fred VanVleet late in the game with the Sixers protecting a 93-91 lead. He may have gotten away with a foul, but the play led to a 3-pointer by Seth Curry with 1:05 to play that extended the advantage to
five points.
“He was huge,” Ben Simmons said of Harris. “Whenever you have somebody going, you want to keep feeding him and going with that momentum so he was great for us and Joel also was dominant so those two guys together had great offensive games.”
Joel Embiid finished with 29 points, 16 rebounds and four assists despite briefly leaving the game with a right leg injury in the third quarter. He came back later in the frame to team with Harris on an 11-0 run that tied the game heading into the final period.
“Tobais made some huge plays for us when we were kind of stuck
in the mud,” Seth Curry said.
•••
The Sixers will be without Furkan Korkmaz for a little while. The 6-7 swingman suffered a strained left groin in Sunday’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers and will be reevaluated in two weeks.
Korkmaz has been a valuable asset off the bench. He is averaging 6.0 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists and is shooting 25 percent from 3-point range in 18 minutes per game.
“We have to weather it,” Rivers said before the game. “We have no choice, but it’s still a tough one for Furk. When you’re putting in a
new system with a new coach and then you get hurt, you miss a lot of it. It’s really tough on the guy.”
Forward Danny Green said filling those minutes will be a group effort.
“We all have to step up. It isn’t a one-person job,” Green said after the morning shoot around. “We all have to shoot better, play better, move the ball and play with each other better. I think Matisse (Thybulle) will probably get more minutes if I had to guess and everybody else, Shake (Milton), myself, Seth, the wings, the small wings will probably have to fill that void, but everybody has to step up. It’s not a one-person job.”