Ben Simmons’ struggles with foul trouble continued on Monday in Memphis, where he fouled out of the game for the second time in three starts.
In his last four games, including preseason action, Simmons has been called for a total of 20 personal fouls, and is currently third in the league in fouls per game, trailing only Jarred Vanderbilt and Deandre Ayton.
Simmons exited Monday’s game with 3:52 remaining in the fourth quarter, on a play where Morant said afterward that he intentionally tried to bait Simmons into fouling him.
After slowly rolling the ball up the floor to burn time on the clock, Morant turned to look at his coach, and Simmons responded by pressing Morant. According to the Grizzlies star, Simmons did the same thing to Morant during his rookie year, but ended up with a steal on the play that time.
Ja Morant baited Ben Simmons into fouling out 🧠pic.twitter.com/QZTCci9Z8M
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 25, 2022
After the game, Simmons criticized the officiating, arguing that the contact he made didn’t cross the line, and that the official had to allow the players to be physical.
Via ESPN:
“I just saw the play. It wasn’t a foul. [Orr] called it a foul, made a mistake, it is what it is … it’s really frustrating … it’s not a foul, but it was [expletive]. It’s frustrating because it’s late game, fourth quarter, it’s a physical, close game. It’s the NBA. It’s not college. It’s not high school. Some people are going to get hit, some people bleed; it’s basketball.”
Simmons also said he was not given an explanation for a technical foul he was assessed in the first quarter after reacting to an offensive foul call. Simmons admitted he used an expletive, but claimed the expletive wasn’t directed at the official.
“He said because Ja had a tech, he had to give me a tech because I said something. It wasn’t malicious. It wasn’t at the referee. I thought it was just a part of basketball. People have emotions. I didn’t cuss at him. I didn’t call him anything. I just said it was a [expletive] call, which it was.”
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