Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons had a pretty solid game in their Game 1 win over the Washington Wizards pulling down 15 rebounds to go along with a playoff career-high 15 assists, but he was criticized for only scoring six points.
In Wednesday’s 120-95 Game 2 win, Simmons had 22 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists in a performance where he was aggressive from the start. He set the tone for Philadelphia early and the Sixers just followed his lead as time went on.
With the way the Wizards were defending Joel Embiid, it opened up more opportunities for Simmons to attack and that is where he was able to make his mark on that end. They made a subtle adjustment with their double teams and that meant more focus on him rather than Simmons and he needed to be aggressive in that circumstance.
“He needed to,” said Embiid. “With the way they were guarding me with just the gravity, I got guys open. He was a recipient of that. He was just aggressive whether it’s playing one on one when the other guy’s not helping.”
Simmons was constantly in the paint and he was aggressive in attacking the basket and making sure that his team had an opportunity to score every time. That is what a guy like Simmons brings to this team. A guy who can create offense for others, but when the time calls for it like on Wednesday, he can score for himself.
“We scored 125 points the first game,” said coach Doc Rivers. “It’s all about us scoring points and whichever way we do it, I’m good with that. If we had scored 130 and he had the same numbers as the first game, that would have meant he was great in doing something else. That’s what I mean. His value to us is almost, you can’t measure it.”
None of Washington’s big men wanted to leave Embiid and go over to defend Simmons. That is where the big fella was able to make an impact passing the ball and being able to make sure his All-Star teammate gets a bucket.
“I saw my man,” Embiid explained. “My man, just the whole game that just they didn’t want to leave me alone so I just told him I was like ‘You got all this space and all the time in the world. Just attack and just be aggressive’. He’s physical, he’s athletic, and he can make plays. He was great tonight and we’re going to need him to keep being that way.”
That type of chemistry and that type of connection is what is going to allow the Sixers to go far. Simmons was able to make the right reads on the cuts and he was able to score off of that.
“That’s trust,” Simmons added. “I trust him, he trusts me. It’s one of those things where I knew, I had six points in the first game and I had 15 assists, so they expect me to find my guys and get my guys shots. They were falling asleep a lot of the times when I came down on the floor and I had to capitalize on that.”
Philadelphia will have to prepare for another adjustment on Saturday in Game 3 of this series in D.C.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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