How Tobias Harris is growing into the Sixers’ version of Kobe Bryant | Marcus Hayes

The Sixers signed Tobias Harris to a 5-year, $180 million contract last July to take over for Jimmy Butler as the team’s late-game assassin.

But, for the first 38 games of the season, the ball kept finding lead-footed double-team magnet Joel Embiid in the final minutes. Then Embiid got hurt. Harris flourished in Embiid’s absence.

Harris scored nine of the Sixers’ last 11 points Jan. 15 against Brooklyn. He hit what would be the game-winning three-pointer three nights later at the Knicks. It was Al Horford who carried the Sixers in the fourth quarter Saturday night, but it was Harris who nailed a 5-foot dagger in a signature win against the Lakers. He hit that shot after Danny Green switched with LeBron James — a pair with seven All-Defensive Team selections between them.

Harris averaged 19.9 points in those nine games, a half-point increase over the first 38. The Sixers went 6-3 as Embiid’s left ring finger recovered from ligament surgery — a gruesome injury, with a pleasant by-product: Harris found his crunch-time legs.

“He’s shown tremendous improvement,” coach Brett Brown said. “Without Joel, it kind of forced our hand.”

They’ve now played 48 games, and beginning Thursday in Atlanta, the final 34 will matter, too. But, for the Sixers, this was never about the first 82 games. It was about Game No. 83, and beyond.

“In the playoffs, let’s call it for what it is: He’s going to be one of our top targets," Brown said. "He has to be.”

He has to be, because he’s the only Sixer with the ability to do it all: score from the three-point line, pull up from 22 feet and in, hit a floater in the lane, punish a smaller player on the block, or to drive all the way to the hoop, draw a foul, and finish.

“That’s why I’m here,” Harris said after he dropped 29 against the Lakers, the sixth time this season he scored at least that many points. “The versatility of how I can score the basketball — from the three, off the bounce, in the post.”

It’s a never-ending process. Just as it was for Kobe.

“Those are the things I’m working on now, day in, day out,” Harris said. “To be ready when the playoffs come. To get the ball in my hand in the fourth quarter, and to make plays.”

He’s the only Sixer with anything like the skill set the man he called his “hero." Harris spent two days last summer with 14 other players at Mamba Sports Academy, Bryant’s facility in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and Bryant’s destination when he and eight others died in a helicopter crash Sunday.

Harris was shaken by the tragedy, which also took Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. Harris wrote their names on his shoes for Tuesday’s game against Golden State, a walkaway win and Embiid’s return. Usually accessible and affable, Harris declined to speak with the media before or after that game, and he was not available at Wednesday’s practice.

But he said what he needed to say Monday: that, like everyone Kobe touched, he was grateful for the moments the Mamba invested in him.

“I got a chance to talk to him, communicate with him, pick his brain on so many things basketball-wise,” Harris said Monday. “That for me was like a dream come true. Being able to get lessons from Kobe, it was like once in a lifetime. Those dialogues and communications between him and myself are something I will never forget.”

Bryant was a stone-cold killer, the “Black Mamba,” perhaps the best clutch player in NBA history. The Sixers acquired Butler to be that guy last season, but they found him as abrasive as his other previous teams, so they executed a sign-and-trade with Miami that landed them defensive ace Josh Richardson. All of which framed Harris as their closer this season in the last four minutes.

How has he done? What do the numbers say? Brown and the Sixers won’t tell, exactly. Harris isn’t Kobe, but he isn’t half bad.

“It feels good,” said Brown, coyly; he closely monitors such situational stats through the team’s extensive analytics department. "My math guys, I ask them, ‘Crunch time, what are we doing?’ And they say, ‘He’s a good bet.’ "

Brown says his odds got better the past three weeks. Even with Embiid back, he’s ready to double down on Harris.

“I want him to score. I want him to hunt buckets. I want him to find the rim. Grow his three-point game. Make plays in traffic. Make a play. Be the guy. Take the shot,” Brown said. “Especially at the end of clocks.”

That’s an issue. When closely defended in the final seconds of a shot clock, Harris often looks to pass.

Mambas don’t pass.

He’s feeling that out.

“I’m a scorer,” Harris said Saturday. “If I’m put in the right positions to do those types of things and make those types of plays, I can definitely flourish.”

He could offer no better tribute to his hero.