Philadelphia 76ers star guard Ben Simmons gets criticized often for his lack of offensive production. For a guy as skilled as he is and with his 6-foot-10 height, there is a school of thought that he should be averaging 20+ points every night.
With Joel Embiid out of the lineup on Monday against the Utah Jazz, Simmons went into a zone offensively that he never has before. He went off for a career-high 42 points on 15-for-26 shooting and he also went to the foul line 13 times and he made 12 of them.
It was a much-needed performance for a team missing their best player and it was also a different type of game for a guy who normally makes a big impact on games without scoring a high number.
“I feel like I’m dominant but it may not look like a 40 point game,” said Simmons. “I might have a triple-double and we win by 20, whatever the case is. Or it might be on defense. Offensively, yeah, I’ve definitely had to pick up the slack especially when Jo’s out.”
It was a strong end to a road trip for him and he did a good job of showing off more of his offensive game. According to the All-Star guard, it is a change in his mentality when it comes to the offensive end of the floor.
“I’ve been working on my mentality and my mental a lot these past few weeks,” he added. “It’s not easy to do that and change the way you play or do certain things in the game that comes naturally to certain people. I feel like I’m figuring it out.”
Considering that Embiid was not out there and the fact that he was in a groove, Simmons showed off more parts of his game. He was taking more midrange shots, he was showing more of a hook shot over defenders, and he was also making some tough off-balanced looks. Those are shots that he was able to work on in a game such as Monday’s.
“You saw this was a game where he was also, I saw it, kinda him working on some things,” said Tobias Harris. “He was getting in the post and using his body down there versus guys who aren’t as big as him and shooting over them so it was just evolution of his game continuing to come together, game after game.”
Simmons averaged 24.3 points on the road trip and now the challenge is going to be carrying his momentum forward and also being able to score when Embiid is out on the floor. It will have to continue to come with a change in his mindset.
“Obviously, my scoring has been a lot higher in the last five or six games,” Simmons finished. “As long as I can keep doing that and stay locked in and keep working on mental, I think it’s scary.”
The Sixers will now return home and play host to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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