James Harden debuts for Philadelphia as 76ers throttle Timberwolves 133-102

So, first impression.

You see the final score, that Philadelphia came to Target Center Friday night and beat the Timberwolves 133-102, shot better than 51%, made 19 of 29 three-pointers and you probably think:

Wow. Bad defensive night.

But Wolves coach Chris Finch would disagree.

After the game had ended, after James Harden had made his 76ers debut in front of an announced 16,694 fans, after Harden, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey — looking like they'd played together for years rather than hours — had combined to score 89 points, Finch wanted to talk about the Timberwolves offense.

"The most costly thing tonight, and it might not be on the stat sheet, was that we were looking for shortcuts all night long," Finch said. "We came down, one pass. Tried to make a home run play. More than anything, it was our offense that let us down."

Interestingly, the players agreed.

D'Angelo Russell, who scored 21 points, was informed about Finch's comments, shortly after tossing a Gatorade bottle to the floor. He agreed, he said, while at the same time saying he didn't really know how it might be changed.

"I don't have the answer," he said.

Karl-Anthony Towns? After looking at the final box ("This stat sheet looks awful, he said), he agreed, too. "This is something that has been trending for a while. We've talked about how the bench has saved us," said Towns, who scored 25 points with seven rebounds. "About how sometimes the starters find a way to win the game at the end. I think for us, as starters, we have to find ourselves."

The 76ers seem to have found something.

It was seamless for Harden, who had one practice and a morning shoot to get ready for his first game since being traded to Philadelphia by Brooklyn. Joining a team that loves to get to the free-throw line seems like the perfect match. Harden scored 27 points with 12 assists in 35 minutes of playing time. Embiid had 34 points, 10 rebounds. Maxey scored 28. Together, they had 20 of the 76ers' 36 free-throw attempts.

BOXSCORE: Philadelphia 133, Wolves 102

The Wolves, who have now lost five consecutive back ends of back-to-back games, were within three late in the second quarter after Russell made two free throws with 2:50 left.

The 76ers then finished the first half on a 14-1 run and started the second half with a 12-4 run. Suddenly a three-point game became a 24-point runaway for Philadelphia in just over 5 minutes of clock time.

To Finch, it comes down to the offense not being run the way it was earlier in the season. Particularly for the first team.

"We're not getting into any of our early concepts," he said. "Any early actions we like to get into, they've all kind of dried up."

It showed in one of the more one-sided losses of the season for the Wolves (32-29). They were outscored 23-4 on the break and the 76ers (36-23) scored 21 points off 16 turnovers.

Towns didn't want to chalk any of this up to a team playing on a second straight night, a team trying to regain its rhythm after the All-Star break. They have to get back to playing the way they did early in the season.

And fast.

"We just have to find it," Towns said. "We have to find ourselves implementing the identity we want to have rather than have the bench showing us how. We have to step our game up. We don't have any time to waste, to drop games."