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Yeah, just when we were in position to challenge for the #1 seed, despite a tough schedule. Let alone, get in a position where we wouldn’t have to go through both Boston and Milwaukee. Maybe James just had a rough night. After an active St Paddy’s weekend. But Doc said he was hurt. (Which didn’t stop him from playing him 47 minutes, of course.) And we probably ain’t gong nowhere if he’s got a bad hamstring on top of what he did to his foot. But it’s an awkward time for him to rehab.

He got hurt and wasn’t 100 percent to start was my guess. If he isn’t at least 90 percent there’s no reason to play him. He has to be healthy for us to contend. Embiid obviously the same.

If he's not healthy and resting would help, yes.

They should absolutely be prioritizing being healthy for the playoffs over seeding, particularly with that being an uphill battle regardless with the remaining schedule.

This team was peaking just a few days ago, and if you sit Harden for some significant period of time and have that disrupt the team's cohesion, I strongly doubt you can get it to cohere again and "re-peak" during the playoffs.

This team needs to continue what it was doing a few days ago and ride that wave into the playoffs, to the tune of a first-round sweep.

Then rest Harden et al., while you're awaiting your second-round opponent to finish its first-round series.

I mean absolutely rest him tonight if he’s questionable. See how he feels entering the road trip. If he still sore rest him more or limit his minutes and live with the results.

I say no. The main priority is Embiid winning MVP, this way he will stop trying in RS next year and will be fresher for playoffs.

Depending on the injury, I’d sit him until the Toronto game. Get him back for Bucks/Celtics and then load manage & fine tune the rotation for the remainder of the season.

Jailblazers7 wrote:Depending on the injury, I’d sit him until the Toronto game. Get him back for Bucks/Celtics and then load manage & fine tune the rotation for the remainder of the season.

That's the way a competent coach who understands that the NBA is about the playoffs and knows how to succeed in the post season with a veteran group would handle it.

Sadly, we are lacking in that department.

I'm not going to bash Doc or the team or anyone else here. Simply answering this question...IF Harden is hurt, or ailing in any capacity, then he needs to sit, rest, and prepare for the playoffs. We're pretty much locked into the 3 seed barring a major collapse along with a win streak from Cleveland. I think we need to be content with that and just move forward into the playoffs as healthy as we can possibly be. With all that being said, I think Harden just had an off night. However, Doc did say he was hurt, so...Doc...You said it yourself...James is hurt...lets go ahead and rest him.

The report is he's still being bothered by the injury that made him lose 1 month earlier.

If that's the case then that's on the team and doc, he should have been resting or playing fewer minutes.

I'd sit him tonight for sure. Longer if needed to get healthy. We're going nowhere with an injured Harden.

Bum Adebayo wrote:I say no. The main priority is Embiid winning MVP, this way he will stop trying in RS next year and will be fresher for playoffs.

I hope Jo’s main target is to get into the playoffs healthy, and I’m not sure sitting Harden necessarily damages Jo’s boxscore that bad. Also, liked what we see out of Melton lately, maybe we give that more room, plus get Tyrese more practice at PnR. Just makes it harder to win games if we don’t have what a Healthy Harden has been giving us until the weekend. (Man, we looked good.)

Murray_17 wrote:The report is he's still being bothered by the injury that made him lose 1 month earlier.

If that's the case then that's on the team and doc, he should have been resting or playing fewer minutes.

If that is true, then it's borderline coaching malpractice to be running him 46 minutes in a regular season game, a couple weeks out from the playoffs, especially after he clearly aggravated the injury.

On second thought, you can scratch the 'borderline'.

Sit him as long as necessary to ensure max health and in game shape for the playoffs, it’s as simple as that.

Thankfully he's out tonight. If it's truly Achilles tendonitis then he needs rest for at least a few games if not more. Even then he should be on a minutes restriction.

rzzzzz wrote:

Bum Adebayo wrote:I say no. The main priority is Embiid winning MVP, this way he will stop trying in RS next year and will be fresher for playoffs.

I hope Jo’s main target is to get into the playoffs healthy, and I’m not sure sitting Harden necessarily damages Jo’s boxscore that bad. Also, liked what we see out of Melton lately, maybe we give that more room, plus get Tyrese more practice at PnR. Just makes it harder to win games if we don’t have what a Healthy Harden has been giving us until the weekend. (Man, we looked good.)

Embiid will need Sixers to still win some of the remaining games, the schedule is brutal too. Embiid's target is both, MVP and playoffs, I prefer to look at mid-term instead of short-term, in the mid-term if Embiid wins MVP, he will finally be in peace with himself and will rest more in 2023-2024 RS.

If med staff says he can play, then he can play
If he can play and he is playing terribly, then we should sit him
If he can play but Harden experience pain or he says he does not want to play, then we should sit him

I’ve definitely got a pit in my stomach now that both Harden & Embiid are dealing with calf/Achilles issues.

Jailblazers7 wrote:I’ve definitely got a pit in my stomach now that both Harden & Embiid are dealing with calf/Achilles issues.

The single solitary priority right now is for these two to be 100%, or as close to that as possible, for game one of the playoffs, and to hell with seeding and awards. If this coach is thinking anything else, he should be summarily fired.

According to Pompey both intend to play vs GSW. Harden likely sits vs PHX