NBA

Embiid asks 76ers fans to support Simmons: He's still our brother

By Sports Desk October 22, 2021

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid made an impassioned plea for fans to support team-mate Ben Simmons amid his continued absence.

Simmons is yet to feature for the 76ers this NBA season, sitting out Friday's clash with Eastern Conference rivals the Brooklyn Nets, having been suspended for Wednesday's opener against the New Orleans Pelicans due to "conduct detrimental to the team".

The three-time All-Star has sought a trade away from the 76ers following last season's shock playoff exit to the Atlanta Hawks, while he was reportedly ejected from Tuesday's practice as head coach Doc Rivers grew frustrated with his lack of engagement.

After a meeting between Simmons, Embiid and the rest of the team, last season's MVP runner-up threw his support behind the former number one pick prior to tip-off against the Nets in Philadelphia.

"I urge you guys to continue to support us and our team-mate Ben, because he's still our brother," Embiid said as he grabbed the microphone on court.

Following the meeting, ESPN reported Simmons notified the 76ers he was not mentally ready to play and needed time to step away.

"I felt good up and down throughout and I kept saying that, things do change," Rivers told reporters pre-game.

"That still doesn't mean it's gonna work out perfect or it could, but I always believed that. I've never wavered from that. I've said that 100 times and I still stick with it."

Rivers added: "It was a productive day, but it's a start. That's the only way you can get going, you gotta start, and today was a start."

 

Simmons – an elite defender who signed a five-year, $177.2million contract extension in 2019 – and his shooting problems were laid bare during the 2021 postseason with the top-seeded 76ers, who were eliminated in the semi-finals.

The 25-year-old had no fourth-quarter field-goal attempts in his last four games of the playoffs against the Hawks last season. He is the only NBA player in the last 20 seasons to have four consecutive postseason games with no field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter during a season in which he was an All-Star, according to Stats Perform.

Simmons averaged just 10.1 field-goal attempts in 2020-21 – a career low, which dropped to 7.9 in the playoffs. It was the same story with his scoring as it dropped to a career-worst 14.3 points per game and 11.9 in the postseason – both career lows.

Then there is Simmons and free throws. He was exposed by rival teams as they regularly sent him to the line, with the Melbourne-born guard making just 25 of 73 shots in the 2020-21 playoffs. His 34.2 free-throw percentage is the lowest ever in a single postseason.

"He is part of the team," he continued. "We have certain rules, obviously, the other day, that didn't happen, but today was a good day.

"Most people, we look at problems instead of the possibilities and I think if we focus on the possibilities, just in life in general, you have a pretty good chance of going to a good place. If you focus on the problems, you're probably gonna continue to have problems."

Related items

  • NBA: Knicks, 76ers record key wins NBA: Knicks, 76ers record key wins

    Jalen Brunson scored 34 points, Miles McBride added a career-high 29, and the New York Knicks ran their winning streak to four games with Monday's 119-112 victory over the Golden State Warriors.

    McBride, who entered the contest averaging just 6.5 points per game, buried 6 of 9 attempts from 3-point range and totalled 11 first-quarter points in a game the Knicks never trailed. New York also received a 10-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist triple-double from Josh Hart to extend their lead on fifth-place Orlando in the Eastern Conference to one game.

    The Knicks opened the game on an 18-4 run and led by as many as 15 points in the first half, though Golden State closed out the second quarter on a 12-3 spurt to cut its deficit to 62-56 at the break.

    Despite 15 second-half points from Klay Thompson, the Warriors never got closer than four points behind over the final two quarters as the Knicks continued to keep them at arm's length mainly due to the shot-making of Brunson, who recorded 20 points in the second half.

    Golden State lost for the fourth time in six games despite 27 points from Stephen Curry and 18 from Thompson, who added a team-high eight assists. Rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis finished 9 of 9 from the field while compiling 19 points and nine rebounds off the bench for the Warriors. 

     

    76ers fend off Heat to gain ground in standings

    Tyrese Maxey tallied 30 points and 10 assists to lead the way as the Philadelphia 76ers earned an important win by holding off the Miami Heat for a 98-91 victory.

    The 76ers' second straight win, coupled with Indiana's loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday, moved Philadelphia a half game ahead of the Pacers for sixth place in the Eastern Conference. The top six teams in both conferences are guaranteed to avoid the play-in round and are assured of a quarterfinals series.

    Kelly Oubre Jr. also posted a double-double for Philadelphia with 22 points and 11 rebounds, while Kyle Lowry chipped in 16 points in his first meeting with the Heat since being traded by his former team in January.

    The Heat took the court again without injured stars Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro but kept the game close until the Sixers began to pull away over the final seven minutes.

    Buddy Hield's 3-pointer with 6:34 left snapped an 85-85 tie and ignited an 8-2 Philadelphia run that Oubre finished with a layup to give his team a 93-87 edge with 2:28 remaining.

    The Heat missed nine of their final 10 field goal attempts and had their two-game winning streak snapped when the 76ers made three free throws in the final 18.3 seconds.

    Philadelphia was clinging to a 53-51 lead early in the second half before ripping off 15 consecutive points - seven of which came courtesy of Maxey - to go up by double digits. 

    Miami responded in the fourth, however, by outscoring the Sixers by a 17-4 margin over a 3 1/2-minute stretch. Terry Rozier had eight points during the run along with a steal that led to Caleb Martin's dunk that tied the game at 85-85 with 6:54 left.

    Rozier and Bam Adebayo led the Heat with 20 points each, with Adebayo adding 13 rebounds and six assists and Rozier recording eight rebounds.

     

    Resilient Cavaliers pin key loss on Pacers

    The Indiana Pacers were leap-frogged by the 76ers in the standings after being dealt a 108-103 loss by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who received big performances from Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen to overcome the absence of several missing pivotal players.

    LeVert compiled 23 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds and Allen also had 23 points along with nine rebounds as Cleveland prevailed despite again playing without All-Star Donovan Mitchell and fellow starters Evan Mobley and Max Strus.

    Indiana received 19 points and 12 rebounds from Pascal Siakam but had an off-shooting night as a team, as it connected on just 9 of 38 tries (23.7 per cent) from 3-point range.

    Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers' top scorer this season, was held to 14 points on 4-of-14 shooting but did hand out 12 assists.

    Indiana did shoot nearly 61 per cent from the field while building a 34-25 lead after one quarter, and was up by 15 points nearing the midway stage of the second before the Cavaliers roared back. 

    Cleveland outscored the Pacers by a 22-7 count over the remainder of the first half to tie the game at 54-54 at intermission, and later took a 72-62 advantage in the third quarter behind an 18-6 run.

    Indiana rallied in the fourth quarter to knot the score at 103-103 on Haliburton's floater with 2:05 left, but LeVert put the Cavs back ahead with a basket on the ensuing possession. 

    The Pacers failed to score the rest of the way, and Isaac Okoro put Cleveland up by two possessions with a layup off a feed from Allen with 26.1 seconds remaining.

     

     

  • 'He's a magician' – Mavs laud Irving after stunning buzzer-beater downs Nuggets 'He's a magician' – Mavs laud Irving after stunning buzzer-beater downs Nuggets

    Kyrie Irving's Dallas Mavericks team-mates heaped praise upon the eight-time All-Star after his incredible buzzer-beater downed the Denver Nuggets on Sunday, with center Daniel Gafford describing him as a "magician".

    With just 0.4 seconds remaining in a back-and-forth contest, Irving hit a dramatic floating shot with his left hand to stun the reigning NBA champions and end their five-game winning streak.

    Taking an in-bounds pass from Maxi Kleber after Jamal Murray had misfired at the other end, Irving dribbled to just behind the free-throw line before sinking his stunning left-handed runner.  

    That lifted the Mavs to their fifth win in their last six games, improving them to 39-29 as they battle for a playoff spot. 

    Irving finished with 24 points in support of Luka Doncic, who had 37 on his return from a hamstring injury, meaning the duo accounted for over half of the Mavs' total.

    Asked about Irving's buzzer-beater, Doncic said: "That shot was unbelievable, man. I couldn't believe it."

    Gafford added: "He's a magician. He is a very crafty finisher, but finishing somewhere that far around the basket?

    "I don't know if he works on something like that, but I know he works on his left hand. It went in and then we just got crazy."

    Irving himself, meanwhile, was himself taken aback when watching replays of the shot, saying it was pure instinct.  

    "I thought I got a little closer in the paint, but I looked at it after the game and I was pretty far out…" he said. "The majority of it is instinctual and comes from preparation for hours that no one sees.

    "I saw [Nikola] Jokic taking away my pull-up going left. I knew that he was going to come up, but I didn't know he was going to commit like that, so he was forcing me inside the 3-point line. 

    "As soon as I felt him kind of behind me, I was like, 'oh, I have my left hand. It's wide open, so why not go to it?'"

  • Beckoning Bundesliga record a testament to Kane's quality – James Beckoning Bundesliga record a testament to Kane's quality – James

    Harry Kane's efforts for Bayern Munich will be worthy of the Ballon d'Or should the England captain break the Bundesliga goalscoring record, so says David James.

    A week on from becoming the first player to score four hat-tricks in a debut Bundesliga season, Kane netted his 31st league goal of the campaign in Bayern's 5-2 win over Darmstadt on Saturday, seeing him surpass Uwe Seeler (from 1963-64) for the most goals in his first term in Germany's top tier.

    Kane has now netted 37 goals in 35 appearances across all competitions for Bayern since his switch from Tottenham, outperforming his expected goals (xG) of 30.19.

    Of players in Europe's big five leagues, only Kylian Mbappe has scored more goals (38) than Kane, whose tally of 47 goal contributions leads the way across the continent.

    With eight league games remaining, Kane is well on course to better Robert Lewandowski's Bundesliga record of 41 goals, which was set during Bayern's all-conquering 2020-21 campaign, and James feels that is evidence enough of the former Spurs star's world-class ability.

    "The fact that he could break the Bundesliga record for goals this year, I think, is a testament to how good Harry Kane is," he told Stats Perform.

    "He could be the man who scored the most goals for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, which would be better than Lewandowski, who people think should have won a Ballon d'Or for the amount of goals he scored in the Bundesliga."

    Kane's form this season has been one of the few positives for Bayern, as for the first time since Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund denied them the Bundesliga in 2012, they look set to finish second, 10 points behind Xabi Alonso's high-flying Bayer Leverkusen.

    James, though, feels there is still more to come from Kane, who will go up against his old rivals Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-finals.

    "I think he's doing a marvellous job," James added.

    "I think he understands completely how to play football, and that might sound a bit funny, but he knows what to do to be better."

    There was some concern for Kane, however, who sustained an ankle injury in Saturday's win over Darmstadt, though the 30-year-old will join up with the England squad this week.

© 2023 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.