NEW YORK, NY -- Game 5 of the first-round playoff series between the Sixers and New York Knicks will be remembered for the all-time legendary clutch performance of the Sixers' All-Star point guard and the NBA's 2023-24 Most Improved Player, Tyrese Maxey. Some may even remember it for reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid's massive struggles in regulation and overtime redemption.
But a true, full story chronicling the ebbs and flows of an instant classic cannot be written without mention of the exploits of Tobias Harris, the much-maligned Sixers forward playing out the final days of an infamous five-year, $180 million contract -- a deal which created expectations far too lofty for him to ever meet.
But on Tuesday night, it did not matter that Harris is the 19th highest-paid player in the NBA this season despite being an average starter at best for much of the year. Because the Sixers, somehow and some way, are living to see another day: and it would not have happened if not for Harris.
Harris finished Game 5 with an impressive, even if not earth-shattering, line in the box score: Harris scored 19 points on 7-11 shooting from the field, including 3-6 shooting from beyond the arc, and grabbed eight rebounds. His individual defense was largely very good, as it has been for the vast majority of this series.
But what is more important than the raw numbers is the context behind them: just about every shot or play Harris made was timely. For a guy who has often been criticized for failing to rise to important occasions, the 31-year-old came through in the clutch time and time again in what many thought would be the final game of his Sixers tenure, which has lasted longer than five calendar years.
Harris scored the first five points of the game -- the first three coming on a corner triple and the next two coming on a mid-range jumper -- and helped the Sixers set the tone despite massive struggles from Embiid early on.
"It was great," Harris said of those two shots, crediting Sixers head coach Nick Nurse for generating good looks for him early on in the game. "I think that was just big for myself overall, just getting into a rhythm, getting into the flow out there... Yeah, that was great for me."
As the Sixers -- Embiid in particular -- struggled mightily as a collective offense for much of the final 36 minutes of regulation, Maxey and Harris were their two sources of life. If not for Maxey's relentless scoring efforts and Harris chipping in at all of the most necessary moments of the game, Maxey's fourth quarter eruption and the team's ensuing overtime victory would not have been possible.
Maxey is an All-Star who averaged 25.9 points per game in the regular season and has been dynamite all series long. He was expected to contribute in a major way in this win-or-go-home contest. There was a lot less confidence that existed in Harris, whose best scoring game of the series came in the Sixers' Game 4 loss in which he scored... 10 points on 4-10 shooting from the field. His offense was flat-out very bad for the entirety of the first four games of this series, and his Game 5 revival came at the most unexpected of times for many.
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"He was really good," Nurse said. Instantly, the Sixers' first-year head coach dove into what he originally called "the shot of the night" before remembering Maxey's iconic game-tying logo three.
The Sixers were trailing by five with fewer than six minutes remaining in regulation after Maxey missed a pair of free throws and Knicks wing OG Anunoby knocked down a jumper. The Madison Square Garden crowd smelled blood in the water, and the environment became rowdy. The Sixers came down and struggled to generate any sort of remotely efficient look. The ball ended up in Harris' hands as the shot clock neared its expiration, and he knocked down an extremely difficult, rushed mid-range jumpshot over a strong contest.
"That, to me was the second-best shot of the night," Nurse later said with a laugh, calling it a "huge, super tough 17-foot turnaround."
Unfortunately for the Sixers, Harris' legacy with the team to date is marred by the oversized hopes that came with his contract and many memories of disappointment.
Jimmy Butler's "Tobias Harris over me?!" quote after eliminating the Sixers in the second round in 2022 will live in Sixers infamy forever. So will Harris' 2-13 shooting performance from beyond the arc in a winnable Game 4 against the Nurse-led Toronto Raptors that the Sixers ultimately dropped in 2019 thanks in large part to Harris missing wide open corner threes over and over.
Maybe the Sixers' 2023-24 championship hopes will die in short order, and Harris' Game 5 renaissance will be lost in the shuffle of many letdowns. But maybe -- just maybe -- the Sixers' miraculous come-from-behind victory Tuesday night will trigger the run Sixers fans have been clamoring for for many years, even predating Harris' arrival in February of 2019. That may be only a small possibility, but it is a possibility nonetheless -- and it would not have been if not for Harris.
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