James Harden wanted to travel with Sixers in order to build chemistry
MILWAUKEE, WI–As the Philadelphia 76ers hit the road on Thursday to take on the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks, there was a question about whether or not James Harden would travel with the team.
Nobody would blame him if he didn’t as he is still nursing a hamstring issue, but the new star guard made the trip with the team to Milwaukee. He will not play for the Sixers against the Bucks, but him being with the team and being able to get some work in is still a positive.
When the Sixers return from the All-Star break, they will only have 24 games to figure all of this out on the floor in order to get the chemistry down right before the playoffs begin. Harden traveling with the team was his choice and he is making an impact early.
“Yeah, that’s great,” said coach Doc Rivers. “That was his suggestion. Not mine. He wanted to do it. He thought more time with the guys, more time on the floor, yesterday he went hard. Because of that, all the young guys had their hardest practice going by their pucks. They had more yesterday than they did the whole year and that was because they were watching James swinging up and down the floor so yeah, that’s huge.”
James Harden did make the trip #Sixers pic.twitter.com/SthMr5dv6T
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) February 17, 2022
Harden making the trip also allows him to bond with his teammates on the plane. Rivers added that the team was playing cards in an effort to come together and begin that chemistry process.
“Playing cards on the plane,” Rivers added. “All that (expletive) looks good.”
The Sixers will have their hands full on Thursday against the Bucks without Harden and it will be a big challenge in order for them to get the job done and bounce back from a blowout loss on Tuesday.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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