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Tim BontempsESPN
Winston Churchill once said of Russia: “It is a mystery wrapped in a mystery.” If there’s an NBA equivalent to that quote, it’s Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons.
There may not be a more confusing player in the NBA than Simmons. He has the size and strength of a center, but plays with the speed and passing vision of a point guard. He can run and can guard all five positions on the track in a way that no one else in the league can probably do.
But at the same time, he will not shoot three-pointers – or even medium-range jumps. And despite all the things he does to help win, his attack has become an endless source of debate in Philadelphia and beyond – especially with Sixers star Joel Embiid.
Case in point: Simmons lined up with the best record in the NBA on Monday night, with Embiid a late scraper due to back tightness, centered for the Sixers in the Utah Jazz.
So what did Simmons do? Play the best game of his career and deliver a career-high 42 points with nine rebounds and 12 assists – all while not taking a shot off the paint.
Eventually, the Jazz prevailed and beat the Sixers 134-123 to secure the 19th victory in their last 20 games.
The story, however, was that Simmons played with the kind of aggression that Sixers fans rarely see.
“I mean, if you put it that way, probably not,” Simmons said with a smile when asked if he’s ever been so aggressive in his NBA career.
“There are nights where I feel like I’m dominating, but it might not look like a 40-point game. I might have a triple-double and we can win by 20, whatever it is. be the defense. [But] yes, I definitely had to get the hang of it with Joel. ‘
Simmons is right. His game is so often about doing things that do not appear in the field score, whether that is the way he can lock up elite scorers in the other teams or set up his teammates for wide open three-pointers.
But the reason the show was so striking on Monday is that Simmons, despite his amazing physical gifts, rarely forces his will on the game as against the Jazz, especially in the first quarter. While Philadelphia led 42-35, Simmons finished the quarter with 19 points and four assists, and he scored either 12 of Philadelphia’s 16 baskets.
Simmons has scored at least three times as many points in an entire game during his first 24 outings this season. On Monday night, he did so in the first twelve minutes, climbing against Jazz center Rudy Gobert, and sometimes by scoring right above the league’s best defensive player.
“We expected that once Joel was scratched, we wanted to create a lineup where Gobert would protect Ben,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers said. ‘It happened, and the key for us was to stop and get it to Ben and get it on the floor.
‘It felt like there was no way anyone would stay with him, especially a center. So I thought Ben’s handle it very well. ‘
Monday’s loss was the third in a row for Philadelphia, which remains at the top of the Eastern Conference thanks to the recent feud of the other candidates. But in the three losses, Simmons looked offensively more aggressive. Although that was clearly the case on Monday, he scored 23 points in the loss of the Portland Trail Blazers against Portland Trail – his previous season high – and followed up 18 points in the defeat against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday.
He scored as many as 18 points in a game the entire season before the game in Portland. Now he did it in three straight.
And according to Simmons, the trend is not an accident.
“Honestly, I worked on my mentality, my spirituality. [game], a lot over the past few weeks, “Simmons said. I think my mindset … it’s not easy to do, to change the way you play, or certain things in the game that are natural to people.
“I feel like I’m working it out. It’s clear my points have been much higher over the last five, six games. As long as I can keep it up, I stay locked up and keep my mental work [game], I think it’s scary. ‘
Over the past few seasons, Simmons’ play has been endlessly investigated – such as the lack of a jump shot, or the times he will disappear within the Philadelphia attack.
Consequently, nights like Monday, when Simmons was the best player on the floor, are all the more enigmatic. Why can he not do it more often than he can do it one night? His last coach, Brett Brown, openly pleaded with him to shoot 3 points. And he did it – about once a month. His new coach, Rivers, went the other way.
The obvious question in the aftermath of Monday’s performance – and Embiid’s absence – is whether Simmons can produce like that when he plays with the league’s best indoor scorer. According to Tobias Harris, Simmons made the move because the Sixers needed him.
‘Ben is a guy, he evaluates the game just the way he plays, and you could see that right at the start of the game: he knew he could get through the guys with his speed. And we were just starting to find different ways to get him involved. , ‘Harris said.
“… I saw him work on some things, and that was to get in the post and use his body down there that was probably not as busy as he was and to shoot over it. It’s just a evolution of his game that still comes together.game after game and he also had just that mindset today.
“He wanted to do everything he could to help us win tonight. And that was more than anything. ‘
For the Sixers to be a team on championship, they need the version of Simmons who showed up against the Jazz to be there when he plays with Embiid. Before Monday night, however, it was unclear whether Simmons was capable of delivering this type of performance.
Now that he’s done it, the question shifts to when – or if – he will do it again. So that goes for the ultimate enigma of the NBA.