Sixers

Tobias Harris and James Harden Laid Enough Game 7 Bricks to Build an $800,000 Fishtown New Construction

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: May 18th, 2026 · 9:54 AM EDT

---

Game 7 between the Pistons and Cavaliers was sort of like the movable object vs. the stoppable force.

One on side, you had former Sixer Tobias Harris, who was on the floor for three second round Game 7 losses during his Philadelphia career. He didn’t do anything remarkable against the Raptors, Hawks, or Celtics.

On the other side, you had former Sixer James Harden, who disappeared in Game 7 against the Boston Celtics in 2023 and shot 3-11 for a cool nine points.

Sure enough, they both stunk up the joint in Detroit on Sunday night, shooting a combined 2-16, going 0-8 from three while scoring 10 of their 14 points from the free-throw line.

The combined shot chart is a disasterpiece:

The thing about Tobias is that he was just coming off a 30-point performance in Game 7 against the Magic, when he shot 11-18 from the floor and 5-7 from three. It was against a play-in team, sure, but he rose to the occasion and played like a legitimate second option next to Cade Cunningham, who scored 32 himself. This time around, he was outscored by the Phillies, who put up 6 against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday with Paul Skenes on the mound.

Alas, Tobias is now 1-4 all-time in playoff Game 7s, and all four of the losses were in the second round. His next-best performance after Orlando was 24 points against the Hawks back in 2021, when Ben Simmons passed up the open dunk to give the ball to Matisse Thybulle instead. PAIN!

It’s somewhat of a similar situation for Harden, who scored 18 points in Cleveland’s first round Game 7 against the Raptors. He didn’t shoot the ball well, just 3-9, but he got to the line a ton and finished +5 on the night. Believe it or not, this most recent game was the first time Harden scored less than 10 points in a Cleveland uniform.

He’s now 5-4 all time in Game 7s, and was 3-4 before this season:

James Harden Game 7 Box Scores

Season	Series	Date	Matchup		PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	FG	3P	FT	MP	Team	Result
2011	West Semis	5/15/11	vs Grizzlies		17	4	3	4	1	1	6/10	4/8	1/4	31.2	Thunder	W
2015	West Semis	5/17/15	vs Clippers		31	7	8	3	1	7	7/20	2/7	15/18	43.1	Rockets	W
2018	West Finals	5/28/18	vs Warriors		32	6	6	4	1	5	12/29	2/13	6/8	42.9	Rockets	L
2020	West First Round	9/02/20	vs Thunder		17	3	9	2	3	4	4/15	1/9	8/9	37.1	Rockets	W
2021	East Semis	6/19/21	vs Bucks		22	9	9	1	1	4	5/17	2/12	10/10	53.0	Nets	L
2023	East Semis	5/14/23	at Celtics		9	6	7	2	1	5	3/11	1/5	2/2	40.8	76ers	L
2025	West First Round	5/03/25	at Nuggets		7	5	13	2	1	2	2/8	1/4	2/2	35.5	Clips	L
2026	East First Round	5/03/26	vs Raptors		18	6	3	3	0	2	3/9	1/5	11/13	36.6	Cavs	W
2026	East Semis	5/17/26	at Pistons		9	5	6	0	0	1	2/10	0/6	5/8	35.9	Cavs	W

The 2018 Western Conference Final really sticks out there. 32 points on 12-29 shooting. Houston shot 7-44 from three. Even if they were 25% from three, instead of 16%, and had a healthy Chris Paul, they go to the Championship from there.

Anyway, we now have to rely on the Cleveland Cavaliers to keep the Knicks out of the NBA Finals. Woof. It’s not looking good. The consolation is that the Thunder will probably smoke both teams, assuming they get past the Spurs, and if they don’t, then the Spurs will hammer the Eastern Conference winner.