Tobias Harris reminisces on opening-night struggles against Wizards
For the Philadelphia 76ers to have success in the 2020-21 season following a disastrous 2019-20 season, they needed Tobias Harris to step up and play much better. He was dreadful in the 2020 playoffs. He shot 2-for-15 from deep as the Sixers were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round.
Fast forward to the beginning of the 2020-21 season under new coach Doc Rivers. With an abundance of new players who could shoot, life was expected to be different for Harris. After all, he succeeded under Rivers when the two were with the Los Angeles Clippers.
On opening night, the Sixers picked up a 113-107 win over the Washington Wizards, but Harris had a miserable night. He had 10 points on 3-for-13 shooting, and he missed all four of his 3s.
Fast forward to Sunday’s Game 1 win over the same Wizards. Harris had 37 points and six rebounds to lead the team to a series-opening win.
“It’s funny because I was looking at old highlights of when we played Washington in the first game of the year,” Harris said after the win. “I remember going home from the game and I didn’t have my best shooter at night, but I said to myself, in this offense, obviously a brand new group, pretty much brand new coaching staff, I said I’m gonna get the looks that I need to get night in night out. I’ll just be patient, tonight I missed them. It’s not the end of the world.”
After that rough performance back in December, Rivers said Harris hesitated too much. Harris does not do much of that anymore, and the Sixers are benefitting from his strong play.
“I just said to myself, we won the game, I had a bunch of looks that I know I can make, I’m encouraged by that,” Harris said reminiscing on that night. “I’m encouraged for the next game. I’ll continue to just get those look and continue to build all that type of confidence, and then to grow off that so it was always a growing process and that’s how I looked at it. I kind of look at all the games like that as well.”
For the Sixers to have the success they plan to have during this playoff run, they will need Harris to continue this strong play. This is only one game, but his career playoff numbers are not all that great.
On the flip side, it’s hard not to get excited about Harris’ production at the moment.
“You also can’t really focus with everyone else has to say,” Harris finished. “I know who I was at that time and I knew that if I continue to get those shots, over and over again, I was going to make most of them. Fast forward to where we’re at now, it’s just being able to have those same type of looks and be great at them.”
Philadelphia will face the Wizards in Game 2 on Wednesday from the Wells Fargo Center.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
