Sports
How Ben Simmons fouled out in 76ers win over San Antonio
How Ben Simmons fouled out in 76ers win over San Antonio
Ben Simmons has watched on from the sidelines as Shake Milton dropped a game-winning bomb with six seconds to play to pick up the Sixers’ first win since the re-start of the NBA season in Florida.
Simmons fouled out with two minutes left to play in a tight, see-sawing run down the stretch.
The Aussie star played just 25 minutes as a result of early foul trouble and struggled to make an impact from the No. 4 spot as the Sixers looked anything but a title contender against Aussie Patty Mills’ Spurs.
The Spurs led in the final minute of the game, but Milton stepped up to plunge a dagger into San Antonio with the go-ahead three with just 6.1 seconds to play.
San Antonio center Jakob Poeltl missed a tough contested put-up after a nice dish from DeMar DeRozan in the paint in the Spurs’ final shot at tying the game before a junk time foul sent Joel Embiid to the line with the Sixers ahead and just 0.4 seconds on the clock.
Embiid sank the first free throw before deliberately missing the second one to secure a 132-130 win for the Sixers.
The Sixers had to do it down the stretch without Simmons after he gave away a cheap foul in the transition to see him exit the game with six fouls with two minutes still on the clock.
Simmons finished with just eight points, two rebounds and five assists in his limited time on the floor, while Tobias Harris (25 points), Embiid (27) Josh Richardson (19), and Milton (16) got plenty of looks.
It was a dramatic change for Milton after he went scoreless in the team’s loss to the Pacers earlier this week.
Despite the win, NBA commentators appear less than convinced that Simmons’s move to power forward is the change needed to turn Philadelphia back into a championship contender.
Columnist David Murphy of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a scathing column on Simmons’ failure to inject himself into the game.
“There’s one reason to think that, over the next six games, the Sixers will turn into a team that we have yet to see,” he wrote.
“It’s Ben Simmons. Because, moving forward, he can’t play much worse.
“Two games into the NBA’s restart in Orlando, the Sixers are the owners of an awful loss and a guess-we’ll-take-it win. Of their eight quarters of play, there have been no more than two in which they’ve looked anything close to championship caliber. And for the second straight game, Simmons was directly responsible.
“For the second straight game, Simmons did not look to shoot from the perimeter. Everywhere else on the court, he was little more than a bystander.”
Commentators on Twitter were just as unforgiving.
“Ben Simmons not getting a touch on an offensive possession essentially means he’s a warm body out there. Sixers built so brokenly,” Josh Eberley of Hoop Magazine, posted on Twitter.
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Marcus Hayes wrote on Twitter: “You can criticize Shake Milton & Al Horford & Brett Brown all you want, but Ben Simmons – All-Star, All Defence, $170 million man – has been the biggest problem in these 2 restart games.
NBA TV commentator Jeremiah Johnson also wrote: “Rough couple games for Ben Simmons to start the Orlando action.”
The Sixers were beaten by Indiana in their first match in Orlando earlier this week and face Eastern Conference rivals Washington on Thursday morning.
