BING BONG: The Philadelphia 76ers were in Madison Square Garden for a Sunday afternoon game, the second of the James Harden era. The Sixers walked away with a convincing 125-109 victory, with Joel Embiid, James Harden, and Tyrese Maxey leading the way.

On Friday night, Embiid-Harden-Maxey combined for 89 points in the win over the Timberwolves. Today in the Garden, the trio combined for 86 points. I’m no mathematician, but that’s good for 176 points on 92 field goal attempts over a two game span.

• Joel Embiid: 37 PTS, 9 REB, 4 BLK
• James Harden: 29 PTS, 16 AST, 10 REB
• Tyrese Maxey: 21 PTS, 7 REB, 2 STL

James Harden notched a triple-double, and joined Nikola Jokic and Dejounte Murray as the only three players in the NBA this season with at least 10 triple-doubles. Harden’s 68 career triple-doubles are 8th all time in NBA history.

Harden ended today’s game with 29 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds. He also had five steals.

Harden joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only player in 76ers history with back-to-back games of 25 points, 12 assists, and eight rebounds. Now would be a good time to open up Twitter, and find whoever told you that Harden was out-of-shape, too old, and a ball hog and let them know how stupid they are.

Joel Embiid

It’s honestly insane how much easier the game of basketball has gotten for Joel Embiid now that James Harden is on the court. Don’t get me wrong, even before Harden arrived in Philadelphia, Embiid could literally do anything he wanted on the basketball court. However, now he doesn’t have three defenders collapsing on him. James Harden is the clear cut difference maker.

The pick-and-roll and “dribble handoffs” have been beautiful.

Say goodbye to the “Embiid isn’t a post-up center.” It’s amazing to see what has happened when he’s given a legitimate ball handler that’s a threat to shoot at any given moment. We’re only two games into the Harden Era and it looks like both of them have been playing basketball together for years. You don’t see anyone saying “The 76ers need to figure out how to make this work.”

Free Throw Attempts

Embiid was 23-27 from the free throw line while Harden was 10-10 from the line. The Sixers as a team were 39-44 (88.6%) from the charity stripe on the day.

Lets take moment and give Fred Katz, Knicks writer for The Athletic, a standing ovation for this SICK burn about the 76ers shooting free throws.

Poor Fred probably spent his entire Sunday afternoon trying to figure out the best jab to take at the 76ers free throw attempts and that’s the best he came up with. Someone better let Fred know that in the game of basketball, if you foul someone, you shoot foul shots.

That’s where the complaining about free throw attempts ends for me. You either play good defense and stop the opposing player from scoring or you foul them, right?

Sounds like no one can stop Joel Embiid. Period.

The Sixers will head home to face the New York Knicks yet again on Wednesday night, marking the first game at home with James Harden in a Philadelphia 76ers uniform.