Sixers downplay extra motivation to beat James Harden: ‘I feel like we just kind of handled our business’

LOS ANGELES — Ty Lue left the Clippers’ locker room just after 3 p.m. local time Sunday, then turned right down the hallway for his postgame news conference.

Seconds later, James Harden emerged from the same location and turned the opposite direction to leave Crypto.com Arena, avoiding questions in the nation’s second-largest media market about his first game against his former team.

Harden’s departure came after he totaled 12 points on 5-of-13 shooting and 14 assists against the 76ers, but only two points in a second half reminiscent of his key-game fades while in Philly. His old team, meanwhile, put together arguably its best performance since Joel Embiid was sidelined following early-February knee surgery. The Sixers finally found their collective shooting stroke while jumping out to a big lead and then pulling away to a 121-107 victory on a day that, before Harden ducked his media obligations, lacked the drama that could have resurfaced following Harden’s tumultuous early-season exit.

“I didn’t really hear no, ‘Ah, we playing them. We playing him,’ ” said reserve guard Cameron Payne, who was not yet on the Sixers’ roster during the Harden saga. Payne said he didn’t “really hear too much of that. I feel like we just kind of handled our business, and that kind of showed on the court.”

Perhaps that confirmed the belief expressed by Sixers coach Nick Nurse and All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey late Friday that the Nov. 1 blockbuster trade — and all the prior hubbub, when Harden exercised his player option for this season, simultaneously requested a trade, and then called Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey a liar — feels like long ago for two teams trying to gain traction before the playoffs. One can partially blame a scheduling quirk that placed these matchups as the Sixers’ 71st and 73rd games, in the span of four days. Yet both coaches downplayed the pregame questions about the potential for extra emotions this week.

“It doesn’t feel like it today,” Nurse said. “It might get a little bit different on the other end [in Philly], but it doesn’t feel like it today.”

Added Lue: “I’m not sure how he’s going to react, but we’re just happy to have James with everything he’s done here for us. I’m not quite sure what happened in Philly.”

The most poignant reminder that Sunday was different occurred amid those media sessions, in a hallway where both teams’ locker rooms are located steps away from each other and loosely separated by curtains. Just before 11 a.m., P.J. Tucker, the other prominent player sent to the Clippers in the blockbuster deal, caught up with Sixers staffers. A few minutes later, Nico Batum, whom the Sixers acquired in the deal, held court in nearly the same spot, talking glowingly about driving back and forth from the home he still has in Los Angeles and how Lue’s belief in him extended his playing career.

» READ MORE: Sixers pull away for a big win against James Harden and the Clippers

A few minutes after that, Sixers assistant coach Rico Hines (who also spearheads the now-iconic NBA pickup games at UCLA each summer) gave Harden a bear hug as he went through his pregame warmup. The only public in-game reminder of the trade was the first-quarter tribute video to Batum, KJ Martin (who played 32 total minutes in four games with the Clippers, after joining in a summer trade with the Houston Rockets), and Robert Covington (who was not on this trip while continuing to rehab from a knee bone bruise that has kept him sidelined for nearly three months).

Harden’s most impactful scoring came early, with eight first-quarter points including two old-fashioned three-point plays and a baseline jumper. He then became a distributor — he led the NBA in assists with the Sixers last season — with seven assists in the second quarter, and his 10th on a Paul George tying three-pointer in the third. Yet after a driving finish cut the Sixers’ lead to 70-67, Harden did not score again and totaled only two assists while the Sixers extended a three-point lead to 21 to cruise to victory.

Still, Maxey described a competitive Harden throughout the game, including “one possession where I boxed him out, and I think he put me in a chokehold,” he quipped. The Sixers guard also playfully trash-talked with Tucker, who missed the game with calf soreness.

» READ MORE: I was wrong: These Sixers miss James Harden, especially now with Joel Embiid sidelined

“There were a couple times I went over there and, like, just messed with his socks,” Tucker said. “Miss those guys, really. … I’m glad they’re happy here.”

Reserve big man Paul Reed, who established pick-and-roll chemistry with Harden as last season progressed, called the point guard “big bro” after the game — and said that, when the trade happened, “I was upset, but I wasn’t, like, upset upset. I was still cool.” Tobias Harris, meanwhile, called Harden “a hell of a player” and said that “it’s all love and respect” between them. Payne added that he felt that Friday’s loss to the Lakers — when the Sixers played relentless defense but shot just 34.4% from the floor — provided more motivation than facing Harden.

Yet Nurse’s assumption that “it might get a little bit different on the other end” is likely accurate — if the ruthless fan treatment of Ben Simmons after he forced his way out of Philly is any indication.

That arrives Wednesday. And after that matchup, perhaps Harden will make himself available to answer questions.