Joel Embiid's advice to struggling James Harden -- 'Be aggressive' - ESPN

PHILADELPHIA — After James Harden had a second straight dreadful shooting night — and the Philadelphia 76ers lost a second straight game to the Boston Celtics in this Eastern Conference semifinal — Joel Embiid's message to his point guard heading into Game 4 is to keep on shooting.

«I mean, you just talk to him and you keep telling him to keep shooting,» Embiid said after Boston's 114-102 Game 3 victory. «Be aggressive. Can't get too high, can't get too low. Some nights you're going to make lots of other shots, a lot of tough ones, and some nights you're not gonna make them. So it's about finding other ways to impact the game.»

Unfortunately for the 76ers, most of Harden's impact on Game 3 was negative for the 76ers. After putting together the single-best playoff game of his entire career by tying his career-high with 45 points in Philadelphia's Game 1 victory, he's followed that performance with a 2-for-14 showing in Game 2 Wednesday night followed by going 3-for-14 in Friday's night's loss here at Wells Fargo Center.

The combined 5-for-28 shooting in those two games is Harden's worst output across two games in his entire career, regular season or playoffs, per ESPN Stats and Information research.

When asked after the game if Boston had done anything to slow him down after his Game 1 performance, Harden simply said, «Nope.»

Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon disagreed, saying the Celtics had made an effort to slow Harden down, with Jaylen Brown being particularly effective in guarding him.

«We're purposefully making it hard on him,» Brogdon said. «He came out in Game 1 and won them that game and played terrific. We don't want him to play like that anymore, so we got to be as physical as we can with him. Force him into tough