Sixers’ Tobias Harris stepped up against Nets in Game 3 win, filling the scoring void Joel Embiid left

NEW YORK -- Lost in the outstanding game by Ben Simmons was the fact that Tobias Harris had the best game of his young playoff career during Thursday’s 131-115 win over the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center. The Sixers now lead the best of seven series two games to one, with Game 4 on Saturday in Brooklyn.

While Simmons had 31 points and nine assists, the 6-foot-9 Harris scored a career playoff high of 29 points.

“Tobias was our bell ringer,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. “You start with Tobias rebounding and what he did from the three-point line.”

What he did from the three-point line was go 6-for-6. Harris was 11-for-19 from the field, made his only foul shot and also grabbed a career playoff high 16 rebounds. He also contributed three assists and one steal.

“He was fantastic tonight,” Brown said.

This was the reason the Sixers acquired him from the Los Angeles Clippers right on Feb. 6 this season, the day before the trade deadline.

Harris admitted that he felt like he had to step it up even more since two-time all-star center Joel Embiid didn’t play due to left knee soreness.

“Obviously with Joel down that is a big scoring loss we had there,” Harris said. “I had to be aggressive from the start, had some good looks all throughout game from my teammates and I was able to let it fly.”

Brown liked the fact that Harris felt like he needed to take on added scoring responsibility.

“I give Tobias credit, he recognized we needed some place to go to get points,” Brown said.

Harris was more than happy to oblige.

What Brown liked most was that Harris, with the combination of his rebounding and ball-handling ability, frequently got the Sixers in transition situations after hitting the boards.

“In Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris, we have three elite dribble-up guys, people who can rebound the ball and go up themselves,” Brown said. “He (Harris) did that a lot tonight. Some of his scoring opportunities were a carry-over from a defensive rebound and we ran with him.”

For Harris, the playoffs couldn’t have started off more poorly. He hit just 2-of-7 his shots and scored four points in the opening 111-102 loss to the Nets.

Then in the first half of the Sixers 145-123 win in Game 2, he shot just 1-for-7. The Sixers only led by one at the half.

Harris and the Sixers turned the series around that third quarter when they outscored the Nets 51-23,. He scored 12 points in that quarter.

His play carried over to Game 3.

“This was a big game for me personally for myself and our team,” Harris said. “I thought we had a lot of players fight for one another, embracing each other on the floor and it was big.”