Will James Harden’s home debut reignite the Sixers’ dominance at Wells Fargo Center?
The Sixers are 16-13 at home this season, and have a difficult schedule in March. Doc Rivers and his players have long been confused by the discrepancy in their home and road records.
James Harden marveled at how Madison Square Garden “felt like we were in Philly,” where pockets of 76ers fans scattered throughout the arena regularly broke into cheers and chants throughout Sunday afternoon’s 125-109 victory over the New York Knicks.
It was an appropriate appetizer for Wednesday, when Harden will finally play in front of his new home crowd 20 days after being acquired in a blockbuster deadline trade. Veteran wing Danny Green said he expects a playoff-like atmosphere spearheaded by a fan base widely regarded as one of the NBA’s most passionate. And perhaps Harden’s first game as a Sixer inside the Wells Fargo Center can serve as the jolt that reignites the team’s home dominance of recent seasons, instead of the inconsistent basketball that has often been played there during the last four months.
“[It will be] another level, but it’s going to be exciting,” Green said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. I feel for the teams that come into our building now.”
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Coach Doc Rivers and players have long been confused by the discrepancy in the Sixers’ home and road records so far this season.
They are 21-10 on the road, owning the most road wins in the Eastern Conference entering Tuesday. They are 16-13 at home, a mark on par with the Toronto Raptors (16-13 entering Tuesday) and Charlotte Hornets (15-15), putting them in the territory of teams occupying East play-in tournament spots rather than teams near the top of the conference. The 37-23 Sixers entered Tuesday in third place, one game behind the Chicago Bulls, who were 24-9 at home entering Tuesday, and three back of the Miami Heat, who are 21-7 at home.
The Sixers already have more home losses than in any of the last three seasons, when they went 29-7 in 2020-21, an NBA-best 31-4 in 2019-20 and 31-10 in 2018-19. Yet that mark had started to trend positively in recent weeks, as the Sixers went 6-3 in their last nine games at the Wells Fargo Center, including a thrilling overtime win over Memphis.
The last time the Sixers played at home, however, was a dreadful 48-point loss to Boston that spoiled the day the Sixers officially introduced Harden. The crowd went wild when Harden emerged from the tunnel to ring the pregame bell, and then had very little to cheer for after tipoff.
Green said that, while it has been vital for the Sixers to “understand what it takes to win on the road and be better at it” — an emphasis for Rivers since he arrived before last season — there is a reason why higher playoff seeds are rewarded with home-court advantage. Yet reserve forward Georges Niang indicated that it is perhaps unfair to compare any element of the pre-Harden Sixers to the group that will play out the final six weeks of the regular season and beyond.
“It’s obviously been up and down,” Niang said of the Sixers’ play at home. “But, like I said before, I’m just happy that we have a consistent roster that we know we’re moving forward with, and that’s just what we’re focusing on right now and building habits. …
“Our home and road record, I guess you could say we sometimes pay attention to that. But I think, for us, it’s taking it game-by-game and seeing how much we can grow.”
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A daunting March home schedule will present plenty of opportunities for that growth. After Wednesday’s game against the sputtering Knicks, the Sixers will face nine consecutive opponents that would be in the playoffs or play-in if they began today — including Cleveland (Friday), Chicago (Monday), Brooklyn (March 10), Miami (March 21) and Milwaukee (March 29) — before closing the regular season with a back-to-back against Indiana and Detroit.
Wednesday’s outing will come with a barrage of fanfare. Rivers and Niang said they are looking forward to Harden playing in that atmosphere as a Sixer, rather than an opponent. But the coach also cares more about how those fans are reacting when the final buzzer sounds.
“I’ll be more excited when we’re walking off the floor and there’s a big [cheer],” Rivers said. “Listen, it’s great. The city’s excited. We’re excited. It will be great for James, great for the team. But at the end of the day, it’s a competition and that’s what we’re gonna show up for.”