PHOENIX — It was a game the 76ers needed to win. Truth be told, they need to win as many as possible to finish out the season.
They were set to play the Phoenix Suns Saturday night at the Footprint Center. And because he's dealing with inflamation and soreness in his left Achilles, James Harden sat out his third straight game in what turned out to be a 125-105 loss.
On Friday, Danuel House Jr. and Jalen McDaniels joined Harden as sidelined Sixers in a 120-112 loss to the Golden State Warriors at the Chase Center. The setback stopped the road momentum the Sixers had built in recent months, making them the NBA's hottest team. Now after consecutive losses, the third-place Sixers (49-25) are four games behind the first-place Milwaukee Bucks and two behind the second-place Boston Celtics with eight games remaining.
House (shoulder) was still out on Saturday while McDaniels (right hip) returned. Meanwhile, Joel Embiid ((right calf tightness) played against the Suns despite being listed questionable for most of the day.
Harden is sidelined, even though coach Doc Rivers said the point guard would have played had they been playoff games.
"Yeah, they're not 100%," Rivers said of resting key players during a defining stretch. "It's not worth the risk. This is not even rocket science. ... If it was a playoff game, everyone plays, you know? So, yeah, this is not difficult. This is not us sitting in a room flipping a coin. These are very easy decisions for us."
The Sixers entered the season with a singular goal — to win a championship. That's why Harden took a $15 million pay cut so the team could sign P.J. Tucker and House to free-agent deals. If Embiid and/or Harden aren't healthy in the playoffs, the Sixers have zero chance of accomplishing anything close to an NBA title.
So pretty much resting players who have tweaked this or that helps in accomplishing that goal. But the Sixers could benefit from having one of the conference's top two seeds.
The distinct realities are clear for the Sixers, who need to finish at least one game ahead of the Celtics (51-23) to grab the No. 2 seed because they lose the tiebreaker after losing their first three games against Boston this season. So any loss, especially on a night Boston wins, hurts. The impact could be the difference between a first-round breather or possibly having to fight hard to avoid a first-round exit. It could be the difference between playing a winner-take-all Game 7 in the second round on the road instead of at home.
While being healthy for the playoffs is best for the team, the road through the Celtics, and then possibly the Bucks (53-21), would be tough.
But for a team prone to second-round exits, some would argue the Sixers desperately need to try to secure the second seed.
"I'm going to tell you something: I can care less about some people," Rivers said. "I'm worried about the 76ers and our team. And we're going to do what's right for our team. I [couldn't] care less about what anybody says."
Rivers, who stresses that his sole focus is being ready for the playoffs, wasn't done.
"There's no people on our team that feels that way, you know?" he said. "All of us know we've got to do it right. If James plays and he gets hurt, then what will some people say? You know what I'm saying? So we've got to do it by team. We're always going to do that."
Despite knowing that sitting out games could hinder his MVP chances, Embiid is in total agreement with his coach.
"It's all about the playoffs," the MVP frontrunner said. "Being in the MVP race, I told you, I don't care. If I win, good. If I don't, it's whatever. That's not where my focus is."
As of Saturday, Embiid was leading the league in scoring at 33.2 points per game. He also ranked seventh (10.8) in rebounds and sixth (1.7) in blocks.
The six-time All-Star finished with a game-high of 46 points along with team highs of nine rebounds and eight assists against the Warriors after being listed as questionable to play.
That came one game after Embiid had his streak of at least 30-point performances snapped at 10 games.
He sat out the second half of Wednesday's blowout victory against the Chicago Bulls for precautionary measures due a tight calf after scoring 12 points with seven rebounds and seven assists before intermission.
"If my focus was on [the MVP], I could have run up the stats against Chicago and could have gone for a triple-double or kept the 30-point streak or whatever," he said. "But I don't care because you know, truth be told, we were up 30 [points]. I wasn't needed anyways. But to be the MVP, you also have to have great stats. I just don't care."
Embiid says there's no point in playing in a game down the stretch if he's not 100%. He pointed out that Boston holds the tiebreaker over the Sixers and Milwaukee is "so far ahead."
"It's going to be hard to get the No. 1 seed or No. 2 seed," said Embiid, the MVP runner-up the past two seasons. "So it's all about making sure that we're all healthy for the playoffs. I don't care if I'm going to lose it again, because of games played or whatever. I don't care.
"It's all about the playoffs and making sure I'm healthy and everybody else is healthy."
