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Ben Simmons stars despite Sixers falling short against Dubs

NBA superstar Kevin Durant has poked fun at Ben Simmons’ Aussie background after declaring “he's something I’ve never seen before”.

James McKernJames McKern
@jLmcKern
5 min read
November 19, 2017 - 4:21PM
Feisty.
Feisty.

BEN Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers jumped the Golden State Warriors in front of their homecrowd and had the defending NBA champions on the ropes.

Then, in the blink of an eye, it all changed.

After holding a 74-52 halftime lead behind Simmons’ 18 points and nine assists, the 76ers took their foot off the Warriors throat.

Stephen Curry took advantage of the 76ers lull by singlehandedly outscoring them in the third quarter 20-15 as the Warriors piled on 47 points.

Amazingly Curry dropped the 20 points from only seven shots as he looked completely unstoppable.

Simmons threatened again to post his third career triple-double however fell just short, still posting an incredible statline of 23 points, eight rebounds and 12 assists.

Simmons was also restricted in the second half when Golden State made the decision to put star forward Kevin Durant on him at the offensive end.

Durant was able to put the clamps on the Aussie, but admitted he was impressed by the athleticism of the 21-year-old.

Durant said after the game that Simmons is, “Something I’ve never seen before”.

However, he also took a shot at Simmons over his “Aussie” fighting spirit.

“He’s something I’ve never seen before as far as playing at point guard at that height and that speed and that strength,” Durant said.

“You can tell he’s Aussie too because he doesn’t mind getting into some scuffles and showing his little feisty side. That’s going to be well for the Sixers down the line and then you’ve got Joel (Embiid) who is playing well and all the amazing pieces that they have here. Covington was huge for them. They are going to be a load coming here this year, next year or year after that, they are going to be pretty good. This is a team that you should shart following. Start playing attention to.”

Durant said after playing Australia at the 2016 Olympics that Australian players deliberately attempted to get under the skins of the Dream Team stars.

Oklahoma star Paul George famously declared after the same game that the Boomers played “dirty”.

However, Durant’s comments about Simmons appeared to be made in the right spirit.

Golden State coach Steve Kerr also praised Simmons.

“Simmons is unbelievably gifted and the two of them together are really difficult to cover and obviously they dominated the first half, but we corralled them in the second half,” Kerr said of Simmons and Joel Embiid.

Showing just how important Simmons is to the 76ers cause is the fact that in his 38 minutes of court time, Philly outscored the Warriors by seven points.

It was in those 10 minutes with Simmons on the bench where Golden State took control and eventually ran out winners, 124-116.

After Joel Embiid dominated against the lowly Los Angeles Lakers, the big man was held in check by the Warriors as he finished with 21 points and eight rebounds.

The loss snaps a two-game win streak for the 76ers who played the first of six straight home games.

Simmons and co will now ready themselves for a battle against the Joe Ingles led Utah Jazz on Tuesday at 11am AEDT.

BALL BAILS ON TEAMMATES

Lonzo didn’t want anything to do with this dust up.
Lonzo didn’t want anything to do with this dust up.

Having your teammates back in any situation goes a long way to building trust amongst the playing group.

Unfortunately for Lonzo Ball he may have a lot of work to do in order to get back into his teammates good books after this latest incident.

As Los Angeles Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Phoenix Suns guard Tyler Ulis got into a bit of push and shove, all players on the floor came rushing in to separate the two.

Ball however chose to walk away.

He did turn around to see the situation unfolding before ultimately deciding to head towards the bench.

It hasn’t exactly been the all conquering season Ball had been hyped to have as his shooting woes have gone from bad to worse.

Post game he offered up an excuse as to why he chose not to get involved or step in with the rest of his teammates.

“It’s the NBA. People ain’t really gonna fight, so I ain’t trying to get no tech,” Ball said.

While the rationale is logical, teammates generally don’t take kindly to someone not having their backs in a situation like this.

As always, basketball fans on social media were quick to poke fun at the Lakers star rookie point guard.

NUGGETS SOAR, GROUND PELICANS

Jamal Murray had the hot hand against the Pelicans.
Jamal Murray had the hot hand against the Pelicans.

The Denver Nuggets followed their worst offensive performance of the season with one that will certainly be hard to top.

Jamal Murray scored 31 points and the Nuggets had the NBA’s highest-scoring game of the season in a 146-114 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night.

Denver surpassed the 142 points Houston scored against Phoenix just one night earlier for the highest total in the league this season.

“If we’re moving the ball like that and everybody touches it — and we’re cutting, moving and finding the open guy and making shots — we could do that every night,” said Murray, whose team looked far different from its 99-82 loss to Portland on Monday.

Nikola Jokic added 13 points and 11 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season as the Nuggets improved to 7-2 at the Pepsi Center.

Gary Harris had 22 points in his return after a two-game absence with right shoulder soreness. Anthony Davis had 17 points and five rebounds for New Orleans before he left the game with a concussion in the opening minute of the third quarter.

Davis was inadvertently hit in the face by Jokic’s head as the Nuggets centre was backing him down with the ball.

“I don’t want (anybody) to get injured because of me,” Jokic said.

“I hope he’s good. I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“I don’t know yet,” Gentry said. “I have to check with doctors.”

The Pelicans trailed by as many as 27 points in the opening quarter but pulled within 66-58 on Davis’ jumper seconds before he went down with the injury.

The Nuggets took advantage of the Pelicans without their All-Star big man and outscored them 40-22 the rest of the way in the third. Emmanuel Mudiay’s 3-pointer before the buzzer made it 106-80.

“You just got to keep playing no matter who’s in there,” Pelicans guard E’Twaun Moore said. “AD here or not here, (DeMarcus Cousins), anybody. We’ve got to keep playing. Today we didn’t and that’s something we’ve got to work on.”

— AAP

DAILY NBA SCORES

Los Angeles Clippers vs Charlotte Hornets

Utah Jazz vs Orlando Magic

Golden State Warriors vs Philadelphia 76ers

Boston Celtics vs Atlanta Hawks

Houston Rockets vs Memphis Grizzlies

Milwaukee Bucks vs Dallas Mavericks

Sacramento Kings vs Portland Trail Blazers

Read related topics:Ben Simmons

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/sport/basketball/nba/lonzo-ball-refused-to-get-involved-as-his-teammates-scuffled/news-story/a7bfc129ce05bdffe9a9b221ef8642be