Gotta also Give Credit to Tobias Harris for a Great Performance
Joel Embiid dropped a casual 42 and 14 on Tuesday night, but listen, if we’re gonna shit all over Tobias Harris when he struggles, then we need to credit the man when he plays well, and he had a banger at the Wells Fargo Center alongside his tall Cameroonian teammate.
Harris put up 33 and 11 with two assists, a steal, and a pair of blocks in 39 minutes. He shot 68.4% from the floor and didn’t miss from three point range or the foul line, going 4-4 and 3-3 respectively from those floor spots. If you watched the game in its entirety, you know he had a really nice second quarter and kept the Pelicans’ halftime lead to a respectable margin, which enabled the come-from-behind win:
Tobias Harris with a season high 33 points against New Orleans (13-19 FG, 3-3 from three, 4-4 FT) pic.twitter.com/4grTpHspzy
— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) January 26, 2022
That’s assertive Tobias right there. Attacking close outs, backing down smaller guys, and taking (and making) those catch-and-shoot three pointers. He’s shooting 32.8% from three this year, which is still way down from the 39.4% he shot last year, but it’s trending in the right direction. It wasn’t long ago that he had dipped below 30% entirely. You see when he thinks less and just approaches the game automatically that he plays so much smoother.
“Just quicker, quicker stuff, quicker decisions,” said Doc Rivers about his starting four, after the game. “When he does it he has a size and speed advantage, (and) when he doesn’t he allows guys to get into his body, get their hand on the ball, and it’s so night and day when he does (make things automatic). He is doing it more, he’s been doing it a lot the last four, five games you can feel him getting back to the pace of last year, which is important for us.”
“After the first quarter we kind of were just flat out there,” Harris added. “I just thought when I was out there with the second group, to just try to pick up the energy for the whole group. We were able to create some good ball movement (and swing it) for some shots. Some didn’t fall, some did. But once we did get a few to fall that just led to everyone like a domino effect out there so we had more pace to our offense. We had a little bit more spark to us and for me I was just finding ways to get to my spots out there, teammates creating good passes for me to make good shots, so it’s just an overall thing.”
Great Tobias Harris performance. Credit where it’s due.