Ice-cool James Harden scores 45 as Philadelphia 76ers stun Boston Celtics

NEW YORK – James Harden had been tasked for much of the National Basketball Association (NBA) season to play a supporting role in a Philadelphia 76ers team that depended largely on Joel Embiid.

But he knows he has to step up whenever the star centre is sidelined.

On Monday night, Harden scored a career play-off high of 45 points as the Sixers overcame the absence of Embiid to stun the Boston Celtics 119-115 in Game 1 of their NBA Eastern Conference semi-final series at the TD Garden.

He produced a magical performance – including a pivotal go-ahead three-pointer with 8.4 seconds remaining – to leave Boston’s home crowd in stunned silence.

“We’re just a resilient team,” Harden said. “Even without Joel, we’ve got the confidence to come here and win games.”

The battling road win came with Embiid looking on from the bench after being ruled out shortly before tip-off. He failed to recover from a sprained knee suffered during the first-round sweep of the Brooklyn Nets.

Sixers coach Doc Rivers said the week-long rest after the Nets series had allowed Philadelphia to adapt their game plan based on the likely absence of their talisman.

“We said, ‘Guys we’re going to have to score tonight, we can’t let them get away from us’. I thought we did that,” he said. “That’s the difference between this year’s team and last year’s team. We have a bunch of street fighters.”

Harden’s 45-point haul came from 17-of-30 shooting and included seven three-pointers.

Tyrese Maxey provided offensive support with 26 points while Tobias Harris added 18 and De’Anthony Melton 17.

The Celtics were led by 39 points from Jayson Tatum while Jaylen Brown chipped in with 23 points and Malcolm Brogdon 20.

With Boston exploiting the absence of Embiid to score freely in the paint, the Celtics jumped out to lead by 12 in the second quarter.

But Harden and Maxey’s scoring ensured that the Sixers remained in touch coming down the stretch, with only a handful of points separating the teams in the closing stages.

A loose pass from Brogdon with 32 seconds left handed Maxey an easy uncontested dunk to put Philadelphia 114-113 up, before Tatum hit back with two free throws to give Boston a slender 115-114 advantage.

But with the clock running down, Harden coolly advanced up the court and took his time before sinking a sublime three-pointer from 26 feet to give Philadelphia a 117-115 lead with just seconds remaining.

Paul Reed then won a foul to put the seal on the victory with two free throws.

Rivers added that Harden’s ice-cool three-pointer at the death was a rebuttal to critics who have long accused the 33-year-old former NBA Most Valuable Player of folding under play-off pressure.

“I thought he had just the perfect mindset tonight,” he said.

“I’m so happy for him because it just tells you what he can do on a given night. He was awesome. Kept his cool, knew when to attack, knew when to give it up. It’s amazing – the guy’s a Hall of Famer and all you hear is the other stuff about him. He’s fantastic.”

In the Western Conference, Nikola Jokic scored 39 points and grabbed 16 rebounds as the Denver Nuggets beat the Phoenix Suns 97-87 at home to take a 2-0 lead in their semi-final series.

Jokic was supported by Aaron Gordon’s 16 points and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 14 points and made all four of his three-point attempts for the Nuggets, who held Phoenix to 14 points in the fourth quarter. AFP, REUTERS