![]() ![]() Simmons' fourth quarters got a lot of attention, and for good reason. He was outright blamed by Joel Embiid for turning the tide of Game 7 in Atlanta's direction when he passed up an opportunity at the rim, instead dishing to Matisse Thybulle, who was fouled and made one out of two free throws. The performance hearkens back to Ben Simmons' infamous 2021 conference semifinal performance against the Atlanta Hawks, when he was criticized for his lack of assertiveness in the fourth quarter. "James in particular, I thought he was trying to do the right things tonight," 76ers coach Doc Rivers said after the loss. This comes a year after Harden went scoreless and attempted just one field goal in the fourth quarter of an elimination game against the Miami Heat. Scoring isn't the only way that he can affect the game, but he also only had two total assists in the fourth quarters of Games 6 and 7. Harden took just six shots in the fourth quarters of Games 5-7, fewer than he took in the final frame of Game 1 alone. James Harden, who has the 25th-most points in NBA history, failed to score a single point in the fourth quarter of the three most crucial games of the series. Over the fourth quarters of the final three games of the conference semifinal series against the Celtics, Harden scored zero points in 32 minutes. You might be able to give him a pass since the game was already pretty much out of reach at that point, but it continued an ugly streak of late-game disappearing acts for Harden. In eight minutes during the fourth quarter, Harden took just one shot and had one assist. Harden went 3 for 11 from the field on Sunday afternoon, including 1-for-5 3-point shooting, dishing out seven assists while committing five turnovers. Following a nine-point dud in the Philadelphia 76ers' 112-88 Game 7 elimination at the hands of the Celtics, that reputation is very much still intact. If the Nets stay as is, what does that mean for Simmons? Will Brooklyn be okay with paying a bench player $37 million next season? Unfortunately, after having Simmons for 1.5 seasons, Brooklyn still does not have much of an idea how Simmons fits with the team moving forward.įollow all of your favorite teams at Nets Wire, Giants Wire, Jets Wire, Rutgers Wire and NorthJersey.After a brilliant 45-point Game 1 against the Boston Celtics without Joel Embiid, it appeared that James Harden was ready to put his ignominious playoff reputation behind him. Another wrinkle was that after the trade deadline, head coach Jacque Vaughn elected to bring Simmons off the bench in lieu of Spencer Dinwiddie being the lead guard. Up to that point, it seemed that Simmons was struggling on the court as much as he was struggling to stay healthy. Simmons played just 42 games before he was ruled out for the season in March due to a nerve impingement in his back. However, those performances came few and far between as it seemed that whenever Simmons appeared to find his groove, he either had a lackluster effort or missed time due to injury. There were times where Simmons showed that the talent that made him a three-time All-Star in Philadelphia was still there, such as when he dropped 22 points, eight rebounds, and five assists in a 12-point win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Nov. Simmons’ lacked explosiveness in his movements and he appeared to lack confidence in what he wanted to do with the ball in his hands. It was clear from watching how he operated within Brooklyn’s offense that his passing ability was still there, but that everything else faded. However, in Simmons’ first six games to start the season, he averaged just 6.2 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 7.3 APG while averaging 31.5 minutes per game. Simmons came into the 2022-23 season with expectations of showing that he could be the third star to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
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