James Harden makes his debut for the 76ers and the Lakers lose again

(Basketball news) James Harden made his much anticipated debut for the Philadelphia 76ers as they beat the Timberwolves 133-102. For 76ers, Harden had 27 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds in his 76ers debut, Joel Embiid added 34 points and 10 rebounds as Harden was 8 of 9 as the 76ers went 30 of 36 overall from the free throw line. For the Timberwolves, Karl-Anthony Towns led Minnesota with 25 points, and D'Angelo Russell had 21. Tobias Harris had just six points, but his defence on Towns forced an off-night shooting for the Timberwolves All-Star as Tyrese Maxey put in an impressive performance to score 28 points. With this result the Sixers improved their record to 36-23 and moved to 3rd in the Eastern Conference standings.

''We're unselfish, we just want to win,'' Harden said. ''We've got guys, from top to bottom, that it feels that way on the court. Great things are going to happen more times than not. My job is to come in and add to each individual on this team.''

''That's what I expected,'' said Embiid, smiling wide as the two shared a post game press conference table. ''I've never been wide open like this in my life. Seriously, the passing, like I wasn't even expecting it and it was just coming.''

''The most costly thing tonight, and it might not be on the stat sheet, was that we were looking for shortcuts all night long,'' Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. ''We come down, one pass, try to make a home run play on offense. And more than anything it was our offense that let us down, really.''

''I feel the way we lost tonight, I feel like we took steps backwards,'' Russell said. ''Tonight, we didn't lose right.''

''I don't know why,'' Harden said. ''That's for the media. The media say that. I feel like I'm one of the best teammates that the NBA's seen, on the court and off the court.''

The Los Angeles Lakers suffered another disappointing loss to their city neighbours Clippers 105-102. For the Clippers, Terance Mann had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Amir Coffey added 12 of his 14 in the fourth quarter as Luke Kennard scored 18 points, the Clippers subsequently earned their sixth consecutive with a victory over the Lakers. For the Lakers, James had 21 points and 11 rebounds while Anthony and Russell Westbrook scored 18 points, they fell five games under .500 with their fourth loss in five games. With this result the Clippers improved their record to 31-31 and levelled up with .500 in the standings as they are currently 8th in the Western Conference.

''When we got down five or six, we just kept our composure, kept our poise and kept playing,'' Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. ''In that third quarter, I thought we let the game get away from us, but to keep our composure and come back and get a win, I thought it was big for us.''

''I couldn't disagree more strongly with the ruling,'' Vogel said. ''It's wrong. It should have been our ball in that situation.''

“We're going to do everything we can to keep it going and put it on their shoulders when they get back,'' Jackson said. ''The thing about this team is, we understand the light is at the end of the tunnel and they're going to be back at some point.''

''I don't understand how some of my comments over the weekend was taken to a whole different area,'' James said, later adding: ''I see myself being in the purple and gold as long as I can play.''

Also read: The NBA is back as Warriors kicked off the proceedings with an emphatic victory

The other results were: