Philadelphia 76ers 'getting more confident as the series goes on,' as James Harden stars in Game 4

PHILADELPHIA — James Harden picked a perfect time to have his best game with the Philadelphia 76ers.

After declaring this series would return to Miami tied after the 76ers lost both games there to begin this best-of-7 affair, Harden poured in 31 points — including 16 in the fourth quarter — and hit 6 3-pointers — his most since arriving here three months ago — to lead the 76ers to a 116-108 victory over the Heat.

As a result, this series is, in fact, tied 2-2 heading back to Miami for Game 5 Tuesday night.

«We're getting more confident as the series goes on,» said Harden, who finished the game with 31 points, seven rebounds, nine assists and six turnovers in 41 minutes. «Those first two games was a blur. But obviously, having Joel and having our full team, we kind of know what to expect.

»We know where to execute on both ends of the ball. It just makes the job a lot easier. Think about: we're still a fairly new team. We're damn near two months. So when we finally catch a rhythm and finally find something that works, Joel goes off for a couple games.

«So we're finally settling into the series, and we've had some great things that have worked tonight and that we can capitalize off in Game 5.»

The thing that has worked the best for Philadelphia in its home games in this series, compared to Games 1 and 2, was simply making shots. After going 14-for-64 from 3-point range in Miami, Philadelphia went 16-for-33 from behind the arc in both Games 3 and 4 — a 54-point swing — to flip this series around.

And it was Harden who delivered a few daggers down the stretch, hitting four triples in the fourth quarter alone to help Philadelphia hold off Miami, which nearly pulled off a win despite its own awful shooting performance (7-for-35