The Philadelphia 76ers have made mincemeat of their opponents in the James Harden era. They won their first two games and should only get better with every game. The Sixers look like legitimate title contenders with their superstar duo of Harden and Joel Embiid.
Embiid was thrilled to play with Harden and has been the beneficiary of his skills. He has continued dominating the opposing defenses and talks constantly about how he is more open than ever before. Before they have even played a home game together, Embiid and Harden are dominating. They took down the New York Knicks behind an overpowering performance from Embiid and a historic performance from Harden.
Embiid needed only one word to describe the tandem of himself and Harden: unstoppable. He explained not only what he and Harden do so well but what the players around them do to make the defense work even harder.
Joel Embiid on the two-man game with James Harden: "Unstoppable. What are you really going to do?"
"You gotta make a decision: Do you stay on me or stay on him? And if you want to guard both of us with the other guys, now you got Matisse diving to the rim or wide-open shooters." pic.twitter.com/8blSjGvkal
— Rich Hofmann (@rich_hofmann) February 27, 2022
The Sixers, indeed, have been unstoppable so far. Although the only reliable scorer aside from Harden and Embiid is Tyrese Maxey, the Sixers have enough depth to make a very deep playoff run. Embiid and Harden are so good in half-court offensive sets that they should have no problems generating offense. Maxey can lead fast breaks with his blazing speed when the team needs it.
Philadelphia is third in the Eastern Conference and should be able to climb higher once its stellar tandem meshes even more.